The Role of the media in combating political violence and promoting credible election in Nigeria vis-A-vis the 2027 general election

𝘽𝙔 𝙀𝙆𝙊𝘽𝙊 𝙂𝙊𝘿𝙒𝙄𝙇 𝙂𝙄𝙁𝙏 (𝙚𝙨𝙦)

The geo- political  entity call Nigeria is a vast and complex country, spanning from the desert of the north  to the tropical forest region of the south including the hinterlands was amalgamated by the British imperialist. However,  Nigeria then becomes  homogeneous state, endowed with uncommon human resources. But since independent in 1960, there are mutual incompatibility, characterized by series of crisis and social unrest. It is against this background that people taunted  the 1914 amalgamation of people of dissimilar  background, culture, tradition and ideologies together is an egregious error .

 Meanwhile,  the major problem that ignites the perennial and persistence crisis is often range from real to superficial, depending on ethnic climes, religious jingoism, misrule, bad governance and political  jave always had violence consequence  of cataclysmic proportion .

In other words, the media as a social organ is seen as the only medium that can rise to the challenges of redressing the wounds of conflict  and problems engendering violence in the country. 

Specifically, the media in a nutshell , should be in the fore front in promoting free, egalitarian an civilized society  through the use of language. This could be achieved from the identification and examination of the speech act, which is concerns with linguistic act made; while speaking and by extension writing the media resort to, in carrying  out their mission. If the media adhere to its ethos will ultimately advance  and free the country from any form of political violence. Meaning that the achievement of the media in mitigating  violence will be through the best way of language placement. This will go a long way in surmounting thle socio political  upheavals in the country. Moreso, the media should be appreciated  as vital organ of social control being the forth estate of the realm.

Paradoxically,  language essentially is a systematic means  of conventionalized signs, sound, gesture or marks having understood  meanings.  In more ways than one.(𝙋𝙍𝙊𝙁𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙊𝙍 𝙏𝙍𝙀𝙂𝙀𝙍), defined  language as a system of arbitrary  vocal symbols by mean of which members of society interacts  inters of the total culture. More importantly,  the media is made up of the press, the people that writes report for public consumption, and is referred to as ''journalism''. However, journalism comprises of five major fields, namely, the newspaper, News Service, Magazine,  Radio and Television. Their primary role basically lies in making information a common knowledge for facilitating  effective communication of ideas. Therefore, both the media and language meets at the confluence of communication. 

By and large, in any human setting,    promulgated with the activities of governance, the success of the media ultimately depends on the ability and effective use of language to fashion  out realities. It is on the bases of this that language is seen to influence a society. And when  language achieve this purpose, it then becomes a successful means of communication.  For communication to function more effectively, language must work. But the wrong impact of language occasioned by the media practitioners largely triggers violence.

Though, a man cannot live perfectly without information, and of- course man needs information to survive and attain sanctity. By implication, a man that is cut-off from information us not better than a man buried in an uncovered grave. Be that as it may, the contemporary fault-line  that is adverse is the electoral impasse and has been the cause of major flash point that have pushed the country to the brinks of disintegration .

Incredible elections had been part of Nigeria-  political history which engenders violence ''ab nitio''. Therefore, the numerous violence recorded in the extant Nigeria - political history seems to link with the object of politics because it all encompasses with 𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙜𝙚𝙩  𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩, 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙤𝙬? To reminiscence the over view of Nigeria political analogous historical extent,  violence was date-back to the colonial era. The first violence in the extant record was the Kano riot of 1953. Since then, the country has been polarize by the activities politicians and military boys which resulted to the 1967 civil war.

But untill recently, the various crisis had metamorphosed to terrorism, religious jingoism, militancy, kidnapping, armed rubbery, rape, cultism, drug addiction, human trafficking, etc. Its quite unfortunate that Nigeria nation stumbles over these crisis to another with increase bitterness  of the socio-political and ethno- religious problems. This portray the fact that the episode of violence was influenced by politics and democratically imbalances on the surface, whereas, violence in Nigeria is linked to ethnic solidarities, and religious jingoism undertone. In any society,  where politics is a major avenue  to amass wealth, the image of competitiveness emanate and such will result to violence.

The period between 1999, spanning to date was marked as an era of political violence or could be a response of frustrating circumferences. And also the inability of the elected leaders to fulfil their campaign promises. As the forth estate of the realm, serving as the watch - dog of government, the media should have been the hallmark of promoting free and credible and violence free election, but not to be influenced by whatever power to create falsehood, including the act of political propaganda and malingering. In the same vein, the media ought to have serve as a medium for given accurate information, educating the masses, and promoting electioneering, but the system has been circumvented by those in authority while the media watch ignominy, ''𝙖𝙨 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙥𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙞𝙥𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣''. As a matter of fact, the media should try to fashion out accuracy and objective in the reportage during election as to enhance the profession. If the media to a large extent engaged in given unascertainable reporting, meaning that they only succeed in inciting  the public and achieving cheap gains.

But the primary aim of the media was to fight for progress and reforms and never tolerate injustices and corruption so much so that it could be seen as potent force to fight demagogue and oppose to the privileged class and public plunderers and merely satisfy in promoting news only. Consequently , the media should never be afraid  to attack wrong whether by predatory plutocracy, or predatory poverty.

Basically, the power of the media in discharging their role lies in the skillful use of language  for positive impact both in action, reaction, inaction, especially in a complex convoluted and multicultural context like Nigeria. The agent of the media is to hold tenaciously the ideals of veracity, fairness, accuracy, honesty and balance the force of reportage so as to protect them as agent of social change. Above all, Nigeria media should not engage in the object falsehood, bias reporting, and ethnic solidarities, subjective analysis  which can escalate and cause violence rather than curbing  it.

It is expected of the media to involve actively in the 2027 general election, render patriotic service,  as to promote credibility in th e forth coming general election. They should educate the electorate to guarantee the practice of one man, one vote and  vote count phenomenon to promote free,  credible and fair election as to see the 2027 general as fairly different from others due to the innovative journalism. It is expected that the reforms in the electoral laws will help to phase of violent of any kind in the 2027 general election.

Finally, Nigeria is known to be a flash-point of all sort of violence both ethnic, religious, socio-political, economic, etc. Therefore, the media is the medium to combat  all forms of crisis in Nigeria. The ultimate goal lies in the proper contextualization of language so as to promote free and fair election in the country.