Discussants at a virtual conference, jointly organised by three leading civil society organisations, have indicted the media over poor monitoring of the impact of the government enforced lockdown, designed to check the spread of Covid19, on women and persons living with disabilities (PWDs). They also say the distribution of palliatives by different levels of government
Discussants at a virtual conference, jointly organised by three leading civil society organisations, have indicted the media over poor monitoring of the impact of the government enforced lockdown, designed to check the spread of Covid19, on women and persons living with disabilities (PWDs). They also say the distribution of palliatives by different levels of government and the management of donor funds and non cash materials are dogged with lack of transparency.
Stressing the need to ensure public disclosure and accountability by government officials charged with the handling of Covid19 funds, they advise the media to invoke the FOI Act to enable it monitor the process of disbursement. The discussants counsel the media to strike partnership with civil society organisations to make their work more effective.
They want the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to ensure that all procurements comply with the Public Procurement Act. They also argue that since the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came to power under the banner of tackling corruption, it has a responsibility to strongly demonstrate to the citizenry that it is ready to walk its talk.
Organised by the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) and Upright for Nigeria, the discussion with the theme, “Monitoring and tracking Covid-19 funding and spending: Role of Media,” featured the Executive Director, International Press Centre (IPC), Mr Lanre Arogundade, a Media and Development Consultant and Founder, Emerge Women, Ms Mary Ikoku and Editor in Chief, Premium Times, Mr Musikilu Mojeed. It was moderated by veteran broadcast Journalist and Executive Director, International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMP), Ms Moji Makanjuola.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has ramp up to over five million cases, killing more than 300,000 persons globally, the country has witnessed a basket of funds that has come both in cash and material donations both to the centre and the states but the citizenry has lost track of the total amount of donations. Aside the contributions spearheaded by the billionaire club which is now organised into Cacovid, other contributions have also been received from individuals, foreign and corporate organisations.
Apart from the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 headed by Mr Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the different states also have their respective committees managing Covid-19 affairs. The Federal Government has given the PTF a support fund while the different states Houses of Assembly have also appropriated funds for the states committees. Although the office of the Accountant General of the Federation came up with some guidelines on the disbursement of the funds, the discussants say the details are still foggy and create room for officials handling the matter to deal below the table.
Arguing that the media has not beamed its searchlight on the pathetic conditions of Women, children and the PWDs who have borne the greater brunt of the lockdown, Ms Ikoku explains that, “Women and children and PWDs do have serious challenges in normal times. In the situation of this pandemic, they bear the brunt. Women account for 70 per cent of the informal sector and they are seriously affected by the lockdown. It’s unfortunate that the men that are not that impacted, are the targets of palliatives because they are regarded as heads of households. I really do not know how the register was put together. In most cases, the cash payment goes to the men who may not allow it to trickle down to the women and their children, many of them have become vulnerable in the process.”
Mr Arogundade concurs that the media has not done well in this regard. “We have not asked enough questions about the condition of women and the vulnerable groups in the disbursement of monies that no one can really account for. We need to partner with civil society groups with women and the PWDs so that we can effectively gauge the impact of the palliatives on these groups. Perhaps the vulnerability of the media has not allowed it properly grill this area. Who are the vulnerable? Is the government working with a proper date bank? We need to bear in mind that government data are unreliable.
Raising further media inquiry, he says, “If we have all these in place, how much accountability and transparency can we really glean? The Ministry of Agriculture is funding infrastructure in the Ministry of Health. We don’t quite have details on the Covid-19 funds. The government’s stance negates their declaration on corruption. We are not seeing any reasonable level of transparency on how the fund is being managed.
“While funds have been allocated to support the work of the PTF and the states committees also via appropriation from the Houses of Assembly, not much has been gotten in terms of details of this expenditure. The fact that we do not have enough transparency should not discourage the media. It’s for the media to grill and ask about the breakdown. We should bombard them with FOI requests. We also need to build the capacity of the media to do this.
“The school feeding programme which is supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) is generating ripples. Why the government appear bent to continue the implementation of such a programme at a time when the students are at home because of the pandemic is intriguing. But the media needs to go and get feedbacks from the supposed beneficiaries. There’s a problem about public procurements. When the Federal Executive Council approves contracts, are they in line with the Public Procurement Act? We could also go to the foreign sponsors like the European Union, WFP and others to inquire what their grants are meant for and whether they are being used for the specified purposes,” the IPC director says.
Echoing Arogundade’s worries, Ms Makanjuola contends that it’s strange that the government has opted to feed school children who are at home. “We can go to the communities and check what the government is actually doing. How’s the government reaching the children? We need to train and properly equip our reporters to deal with these issues,” she opines.
Also expressing concern on what seems like the shady management of the Covid-19 funds, Mr Mojeed complains about “poor procedure and disclosure” that have dogged the process. “We don’t know how much has been collected. They promised to open a website where all these donations can be tracked. The information on the website is still hazy. And they are always talking of the donations in cash but where’s the record for the kind donation?” he quips
Continuing, Mojeed, also chair of the board of Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), canvasses the need to build the capacity of the media to vigorously track the spending. “When you have emergencies like this, the media need to be trained on how to track government funding. Procurements are being done, are they in line with the Public Procurement Act? These are critical issues for the media,” he posits.
Ms Ikoku is particularly miffed that the media is confronted with a cap in hand system where the condition under which it operates is difficult. “There’s a lot of disinformation and half truth on what’s being dished out. There’s need to train the media in an emergency. This cap in hand approach makes it difficult for the media to carry out effective coverage. Not much information is coming out from the health and isolation centres. The media need to demand more access to the health and isolation centres in order for it to provide more information to the citizenry on what’s happening there,” she says.
On support for Journalists who have become vulnerable, Arogundade reveals that there are some organisations that are resolved to supporting Journalists whose work have been impacted by the pandemic, advising that they need to go online and search for organisations supporting Covid-19 reporting. “We also need to make use of partnership reporting,” he says.
One of the participants from Kaduna simply called Joshua, says all the corruption at the level of government takes place during budgeting, noting that virtually all the procurements by many governments are not in line with the Public Procurement Act. He however counsels the media on the use of community based organisations and Open Government Partnership (OGP) as instruments for calling for accountability.
Another participant, Gbenga opines that profiling vulnerable people has been a naughty issue. “Most of the people getting palliatives are the politically biased; they are directed to members of the ruling political party. The media needs to put its grill on this,” he says.
Speaking on behalf of the organisers, Dr Abiola Akiode Afolabi, executive director, WARDC disclosed that it was the fourth in the series of webinars being undertaken as part of the move to promote the culture of accountability around the effort to combat Covid-19.
“There’s lack of inclusivity and transparency on the part of government. We call on ICPC to activate the compliance system. People should invoke FOI to demand for accountability. The media has a vital role to play,” she says.
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