By Henry Uche
Health experts have charge Journalists in the country to report COVID-19 pandemic news with the mind to educate and inform the people and not to entertain anyone as some Nigerians now see figures of COVID-19 update as mere football live scores. They maintained that citizens want to know how COVID-19 situation report is impacting their overall well-being, hence the need for human interest stories.
They made this call at a media professional training on: “COVID-19 Response; The Role of The Media,” noting that people want to know how COVID-19 is affecting them families, market places, farmers and their general well- being, therefore COVID-19 reports must be educating to trigger strategic decisions, policy design and planning, not entertaining report.
They also charge Journalists to be ambassadors of the people at all times and act in that manner. They noted that newsmen must not create tension in the society but mitigate same when false contents are churned out especially in the social media from bogus sources.
“We must not be agents of confusion nor tension, we must be be agents and tools for good governance and we must ensure that every demography is included in our reports.”
Speaking for people with disabilities, a representative from Civil Society Coalition on COVID-19 emergency group, Aiyepola Bilquees, implored media professionals to plead the cause of people with disabilities in their reportage so that the government and other concern citizens could understand their plight. They called on government to enforce People With Disabilities Law, to give them these fellow citizens sense of belonging. “You need to take your jobs a bit higher, we need to go yonder, we need to meet these people and find out what challenges they are facing, this is a must tasks because our population is not complete without them.”
Meanwhile, the incident manager, Lagos State COVID-19 Response, Ismail Abdusalam, informed that measures are put in place to advert the second wave of COVID-19 adding that people must not rest or feel less concerned because it’s not yet over.
“The state government has the interest of citizens at heart, so we leaving no stone unturned to ensure that we advert second wave of COVID-19, howbeit we must be in charge of ourselves by doing the needful. It’s important we take personal responsibility for the of good of everyone.”
More so, the Chairman, Lagos State Civil Society Partnership, LASCOP, Ayo Adebusoye, sued for a drastic slash on the jumbo take-home of politicians and high cost of governance in Nigeria. He pleaded with the government across board to see health a top priority which must reflect on the quality of health facilities and better pay for health workers.
“Our politicians take home too much as salaries and other perks, the cost of governance is very high in Nigeria, but our hospitals are in a sorry state. They all saw what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, the world have seen how prepared we are to meet unexpected contingencies.