The International Press Center (IPC) On Tuesday in Abuja launched a IOS/ Web App on media election code, with a call on President Bola Tinubu to deepen democratic dividends by fulfilling all his campaign promises.
The Executive Director of IPC, Mr Lanre Arogundade made the call during a media and CSOs stakeholders roundtable discussion on the documented Campaign Promises Of President Bola Tinubu.
He explained that the essence of the event is to rally the media to hold government accountable on their campaign promises.
“During Campaigns, we documented the campaign promises of all the Presidential Candidates with the view of presenting the campaign promises of the winner of the election to ensure that the campaign promises are followed and fulfilled”.
He urged the media professionals to effectively educate the citizens and monitor the activities of government, to ensure the implementation of their promises.
“This days , we talk of solution driven journalism, but you can’t have a solution when you don’t pick promises, follow them up and ensure that they are actually implemented, and also ask questions if there are challenges of implementation or changes of the plan.
“Normally it is IPC tradition to publish that of the President, so that we can look at these promises in our respective beat on how they are being Implemented,” he explained.
According to him, the digitalized IOS Web App was part of the commitment of International Press Center to ensure that the code of conduct for election media coverage gets to all Journalists, researchers, including mass communication students in tertiary Universities.
In a presentation on the role of citizens and the media in ensuring democratic accountability, the Founding Executive Director African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, Dr Otive Igbuzor, was of the opinion that democracy still remained the best form of governance.
He said prioritizing accountability promotes good governance, prevents corruption and abuse of power.
Dr Otive further explained that lack of accountability often leads to struggle for social justice and urged Journalists to utilize the available tools like the Freedom of Information Act to set political agenda and analyse progress made in various sectors, to hold the government accountable.
Responding to questions at the forum, Media Aide to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr Tunde Rahman, represented by Ayo Oyalowo, said the present administration would do all within its power to implement all its campaign promises.
Mr Rahman further assured that the present administration will improve on all the good policies of the previous administration, adding that plans were on, to make Nigeria more of an exporting nation than an importing one.
