Graft Killed Eko Today —Ayobolu

Former Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Information and Strategy, Segun Ayobolu has lamented that corruption and mismanagement killed the Lagos State Government’s newspaper, Eko Today, several years ago.

He called on the state government to revive the newspaper so that events in Lagos State could be well reported.

Ayobolu delivered a lecture at the ongoing Press Week of the Lagos State Ministry of Information Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ chapter, on Wednesday in Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, while speaking on the topic,”Bridging the information gap between government and the public: The Lagos Example.”

“I believe, for instance, that Lagos State should revive its own newspaper. Even though Lagos is still the headquarters of the media industry, Lagos is still grossly under-reported. The defunct Eko Today was run aground not because it was not be a viable enterprise but due to mismanagement, incompetence and corruption.

“Again, Lagos should consider establishing its own news agency to more effectively engage the professional skills of its information officers and more efficiently gets its messages to existing news media,” Ayobolu said.

According to him, to strengthen the Fashola administration’s on-going efforts to bring about positive behavioural changes among the populace, it would also be appropriate to consider the establishment of a Lagos State Public Orientation Agency.

Ayobolu stated at the commencement of this lecture: “We refer to the constitutional obligation of the media to hold government accountable as well as inform the people accurately in the best interest of democracy and development. This necessarily implies that the media must maintain the highest standards of ethical rigour.

“Unfortunately, the abysmal current level of remuneration and welfare in the media makes most media practitioners vulnerable to corrupt enticement to the detriment of their professional integrity and the national interest.”

Ayobolu said this is one reason the NUJ should intensify efforts to enhance the working conditions and welfare within the profession, adding that the NUJ must also help more effectively publicise the Freedom of Information Act so that the public could be more aware of its provisions and media practitioners better equipped to utilise its provisions to help bridge the information gap between the government and the public and promote the rapid development of Nigeria.

Ayobolu, a veteran journalist added that since the exit of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, there is now greater respect for the rule of law as elections were becoming increasingly more credible.

“The obsession with capturing Lagos State at all costs has ebbed. Information management under Fashola, therefore, takes place within the context of more harmonious Federal-Lagos relations. Some of the innovations of the Fashola Administration in information management include the more intensive use of social media, the giving of account of its activities to the people every hundred days, the publication of the Lagos Indicator and the introduction of the revolutionary Traffic radio that is already making such tremendous impact within a very short time.

“Even though so much has been done to bridging the information gap between the government and the public in Lagos, the government cannot afford to rest on its oars in this regard. Effective communication between the government and the people must be a continuous, never ending process,” he stated.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga