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The Media, The Youth And Development

By Odion Kadiri
04 October 2015   |   12:50 am
THE earlier, the media began to shed light on the negative effect of corruption in the society, the easier it would be to fight and win the war against corruption.
Youths.

Youths.

THE earlier, the media began to shed light on the negative effect of corruption in the society, the easier it would be to fight and win the war against corruption.

As noted last week, the fight against corruption should be youth focused. The media and all the concerned groups should not allow politicians to hijack it or allow them to drive it.

According to a survey carried out on the utility of mass media outlets by a youth organisation, most young people spend longer time on the social media than watching television because TV stations, especially the national TV stations, are not entertaining enough. So, to make the young people key into this campaign, the messages must be spiced with entertainment and channels should show equal concern to news items, as well as politics and entertainment.

For these future leaders to pick interest in politics and issues that bother on true federalism, the mass media need to speak their language. I do not desire that the conventional house style of various media houses be altered, no! But, it is necessary for them to review some of their organisational policies to reflect current realities in information disemination. This is solely for the sake of national development.

Making our primary, secondary and tertiary school curricula to reflect anti-corruption messages would also be a productive step to spur the youths to fight corruption and it would be good to encourage political education, which would be for the general good of our nation and development.

Having done this, government should make sure that courses that pertain to anti-corruption and political education are offered by all students, irrespective of courses of study in tertiary institutions.

For the sake of Nigeria’s democracy, development and the national peace, the media should mount pressure on government to involve the youths in the running of government, by giving them simple roles to handle and also listening to them.
• Odion Kadiri is a student of Mass Communication, UNIBEN.

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