A Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU), Ikeji-Arakeji, Osun State, Tokunbo Adaja, has called on journalists and media organisations to enhance their investigative reporting skills to uncover corruption and promote accountability in governance.
Delivering the university’s 11th Inaugural Lecture titled “Power of Press and Press of Power: Bridging the Lacuna in the Quest for Good Governance in Nigeria”, Adaja said the press holds immense power that must be strategically deployed to effect real change rather than remain theoretical.
He emphasised that the media plays a crucial role as an agent of accountability, transparency, and probity in society.
According to him, journalists must adopt a culture of consistently reporting and monitoring government activities, including public contracts, to ensure they meet required standards and specifications.
Adaja further charged the press to lead the push for good governance by exposing all forms of social, political, and economic misadventures committed by government officials and institutions, while also encouraging prosecuting agencies to take action where necessary.
Cautioning against the abdication of the press’s watchdog responsibilities, he urged media houses to give balanced and critical coverage to the executive, legislature, and judiciary, and to report any abuses of power.
The professor also criticised the glorification of individuals with questionable wealth and stressed the importance of investigating and exposing the sources of such riches to discourage corruption.
According to him, “People suspected to be living above their income as well as emergency-rich people in the society should be probed and made to disclose their source(s) of wealth”.
On people’s involvement in political activities, the Inaugural Lecturer lamented that political participation in Nigeria remains abysmally low. He maintained that a sustainable democracy requires the active participation of “an informed, rational and active citizenry”.
To change this narrative, he challenged the Nigerian press to engage in intensive political mobilisation, education, and sensitisation to boost citizen participation in the democratic process.
X-raying the media and anti-graft efforts, Adaja acknowledged that while corruption is a global challenge, its manifestations in Nigeria are highly dependent on power distribution, legal and moral norms operation.
He decried the socio-political and economic imbalance caused by corruption, which, he said, undermined the legitimate activities and diminished the capacity of individuals to achieve their potential.
Taking a swipe at successive governments’ anticorruption crusade, the Don faulted the method adopted to tackle the menace and argued that the results of various anti-corruption initiatives from government, NGOs, and international bodies have been largely disappointing.
Prof. Adaja, who declared that Nigerians are not corrupt but the system corrupted the citizens, contended that no anti-corruption campaign can succeed without meaningful citizen involvement.
He therefore called on the media to lead this effort by raising awareness and educating the public on the consequences of corruption. Such awareness, according to him, would shape public perception and attitudes toward corrupt practices.
While urging leaders at all levels to lead by example if the country must win the war against corruption, Adaja wants journalists to profile those seeking political offices and reveal their records to help the electorate make informed choices during elections.
Adaja, who described the press as an ideological apparatus with a responsibility to engineer cultural rebirth, also stressed the need for the media to revisit Nigeria’s “lost cultural heritage, exhume and refine the key contents of our culture as well as reset the mindset of the citizenry to key into it”.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Olasebikan Fakolujo, described the inaugural lecturer as a distinguished scholar with over 50 publications in reputable local and international journals.
The event was attended by members of the university community, speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, traditional rulers, family members as well as friends and well-wishers.
