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The
founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership Prof Pat Utomi has tasked the
Nigerian media to drive nation’s development through setting agenda on
progressive issues, reports ITRealms.
Utomi said the media “must set an agenda for
society to travel in the direction of elevating the dignity of citizens by
reducing infant mortality, maternal mortality at childbirth, build capacity to
adapt to the pace of a changing world and have infrastructure that enables and
sustains economic competitiveness”.
Utomi made the call as he delivered the 11th
Jackson Annual Lecture of the Department of Mass Communication, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka. Utomi is an alumnus of the school. He spoke on “The media and
the development challenge in Nigeria at a time of crisis”.
The noted political
economist and professor of entrepreneurship asserted that it is imperative for
the media to play this role as Nigeria confronts crisis on various fronts. To
do so, however, media organisations must strengthen their institutional
structures and strategies.
Utomi asserted that for the
media to deploy the agenda-setting theory to its duties, “the media has to understand what shapes
human progress and speeds up economic growth”. He suggested the application of the Growth Drivers Framework of
six interdependent variables. The
variables are policy choice, institutions, human capital, entrepreneurship,
culture and leadership.
Agenda setting tasks for the media include
helping to enhance rigour in policy choice, encouraging a culture of reasoned
public conversation on policy matters and playing up the activities of civil
society that results in stronger institutions with more effective investment in human capital, Utomi stated. He said
these would lead to “more virile entrepreneurship and economic growth resulting
therefrom”.
Noting the presence of strong
private media in Nigeria, Utomi said the Nigeria media should play a role
similar to their counterparts elsewhere. “Private media played an enormous role
in the evolution of the American free enterprise system and the shared values that define
nation-building there. America’s success
comes significantly from how the media helps build the legitimacy of American
institutions.”
A noted columnist, Utomi is
also a director on the Africa Practice of Deloitte Consulting and served as
Director of the Centre for Applied Economics at the Lagos Business School.
He
believes “the media can make a major
contribution to the healing of many wounds that currently define Nigeria, and
help construct a melting pot in which recruiting, quality of political actors,
prospecting a strong sense of the mission of the generation, powers a new
consciousness for progress. But it will take the new
vision of the business models of media enterprise and journalists who
understand how the media exerts influence and who see the Nehemiah in
themselves to make things happen.”
