Publisher, National Point, Ibiba Don Pedro; The Executive Director, International Press Center (IPC), Lanre Arogundade and the Executive Director, Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER), Adewale Adeoye are among the stakeholders who recently expressed the need to use the power of the media to seek compensation for rights violations indigenous people. .
He spoke at a two-day training for media practitioners on effective and impactful reporting on indigenous issues in Nigeria held in Abuja. The training was organized by the Center for Human Rights and Citizenship Education, (CHRICED), JODER and IPC with the support of the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
All over the world, indigenous people have lived for generations to be the first to inhabit certain areas. They are called the First Nations. Although it can be found all over the world, where humans can live, many indigenous peoples have been lost by time and history and struggle to protect their identity expressed in the form of indigenous languages, cultures, civilizations, knowledge and philosophies, which they want to preserve even in the face of threats .
According to the United Nations, indigenous peoples face significant obstacles in performing traditional occupations and accessing decent employment opportunities, education, and social protection; indigenous people are almost three times more likely to live in extreme poverty compared to their non-indigenous counterparts; and more than 86 percent of indigenous people worldwide work in the informal economy, compared to 66 percent for their non-indigenous counterparts.
In Nigeria, it is believed that the post-colonial country has a pattern of balkanization. The emergence of local, state and national authorities hold power and authority with a strong or no consultation with the indigenous people on how the country and its borders are structured.
In his presentation, Don Pedro, who spoke on: ‘The role of the media in the struggle of indigenous women in Nigeria: The case of the FCT-Abuja indigenous population and the Niger Delta,’ noted that journalists should focus on environmental rights and climate responsiveness. action, investigative journalism, data journalism, agenda setting and human rights journalism.
Speaking on: ‘The Role of the Media in the Promotion of International Instruments for the Sustainable Development and Empowerment of Indigenous Peoples in Nigeria,’ Adeoye noted that there is a lack of connectivity between media reports and indigenous rights as defined by international laws, treaties and conventions.
He noted that the media considers indigenous issues as a footnote, adding indigenous issues such as language, customs and traditions that are considered art and life stories, which ignore the intrinsic relationship with the socio-political and economic safety of the community.
He also observed the following: Journalists sometimes replace their own subjective consciousness and thoughts with the consciousness and objective reality of the subject they report; media reports sometimes fail to locate indigenous rights in historical context; indigenous problems are often overshadowed by corporate interests and the profit of multinational corporations; using clichés in couching indigenous problems only meets the expectations of the state; clichés like ‘bandits’, ‘anti-state elements’, ‘hoodlums’ are used to undermine critical issues of exclusion expressed by indigenous peoples-even with violence to demand justice.
Other observations include: Control and manipulation of publicly owned media by the federal and state governments, thereby reducing the equitable access of indigenous peoples, not being able to balance the interests of indigenous peoples with the exploitative tendencies and exploitation of corporate institutions and inadequate access by indigenous peoples . into the mainstream.
To this end, he emphasized the need to build a network of journalists on indigenous issues, with the aim of training in conflict reporting, climate change, peace building and conflict prevention.
He added that indigenous people should also create their own stories using modern technology that can be accessed through social media. Arogundade, who spoke on: “Politics, media and the situation of indigenes in Nigeria” said journalists should make issues of social responsibility of indigenes by engaging in development journalism, inclusive, credible and sensitive.
In his presentation, Prof. Lucky Akaruese of the Department of Philosophy, University of Port Harcourt spoke on: “Effective Strategies for Developing a National Framework for the Advancement of Indigenous Issues in the Nigerian Media Space.”
He observed that the amalgamation of 1914 brought indigenous groups under the umbrella of the Nigerian state, therefore, fostering the values of foreign colonialism including social, economic, technological and political models inherited from colonialism, thereby destroying the indigenous model.
He advises media practitioners to urge the government at all levels to start massive education, specially designed to educate the indigenous people to realize the need for mutual co-existence among themselves, and with others; which will require letting go of these adversarial ideas.
In his welcome speech, the Executive Director, CHRICED, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, announced that a visit to the Abuja Original Inhabitant community, just a few hours drive from the beautiful Abuja City Center, will open the dirty belly of the people’s deprivation, and expose the reality. the community lacks health and education facilities, bad roads, potable water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities.
Consequently, he said that the Original Inhabitants (OIs) have done everything possible over time to draw attention to the clear discrimination and injustice they face, but successive governments have turned a deaf ear.
For him, even the courts of law, including the Supreme Court of Nigeria which favored OI were all ignored. He observed: “The lack of representation in the core governance structures responsible for service delivery exacerbates the reality of OI Abuja. And unlike other Nigerians in various states who have the right to elect the Governor and the State House of Assembly, Abuja OI is denied that right. In fact , as Nigeria counts down to the 2023 general elections, the democratic process itself is a painful reminder of the marginalization and exclusion of the FCT Original Inhabitants.
He added that in response to discrimination, exclusion, and violation of the rights of citizens and women, CHRICED planned and started the implementation of a two-year project ‘Promoting the Rights of the Original Inhabitants in the FCT’ with the support of John. D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
He said the project aims to support and strengthen the advocacy, voice and organizational development of the Indigenous People of the FCT. He assured: “CHRICED, together with IPC and JODER, is convinced that this story of injustice, exclusion and marginalization must be told in a way that helps to overcome the violations experienced by the Indigenous People. Therefore, our role is to support the Press to tell this story of serious injustice , not only for the national audience in Nigeria, but also for the international community.