Today, everyone with a mobile phone with a camera has turned into a journalist taking pictures accompanied by inflammatory and damaging write-ups and unbridled circulation dished out in industrial torrents, in a stellar display of unprofessionalism.

“In many instances, the media had exploited our fault lines of ethnicity and religion to undermine Nigeria’s democracy and even threaten national security.

“Today, Nigeria is worse for it, especially in our country where gullibility is so high.

“Let us use the October 2020 #EndSARS violence which raged in parts of the country as a case study. For about two weeks, 57 civilians as well as six soldiers and 37 policemen were killed.

“Also, 196 policemen were injured, 164 police vehicles destroyed and 134 police stations razed with some 269 private/corporate facilities and 243 government facilities either vandalised, looted and/or burnt.

“Some of those who were reported killed through social media misinformation, however, came out to refute such claims.

“By the time the dust settled, about N20 billion verified claims had been lost in just two weeks to the organisation,” he said.

The minister said while freedom of the press is critical to participatory democracy, he said no government no matter how benevolent would allow purveyors of fake news to plunge the country into crisis.

“Knowing too well that no investor would sink scarce resources in an environment marked by violence and general insecurity, the media has the responsibility to exercise restraint in promoting the type of incendiary reportage.

“Media practitioners, especially those plying their trade on the social media, must also begin to reason in the line of self-censorship in order to purge editorial content of reports which accentuate the country’s fault lines.

“In the light of recent events, some school of thought has canvassed some form of regulation to complement the existing rules and policy guidelines, if sanity must be restored in the industry.

“Incidentally, this in itself is not a new development across the globe, especially in western democracies.

“In the European Union for example, there are efforts to go beyond self regulation by social media providers to a shift toward greater legal regulation for social media.

“In Canada, there is a directive to create new regulations for social media while in Germany, social media companies and individuals risk penalty where abuse is established,” he said

By: Tope Abiola

Management of Osun State Polytechnic Iree has declared that the physical screening exercise of Post UTME for applicants into the National Diploma (ND) of the Institution for 2021/2022 Academic Session will commence on Monday 1st November, 2021.

A release by Registrar of the Polytechnic, Mr Busari Salawu ESQ stated that screening of applicants into programmes in the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology; Mass Communication, Computer Science and Office Technology and Management would hold on Monday 1st November, while applicants into the Faculties of Science and Arts and Industrial Design; Science Laboratory Technology, Food Science, Statistics and Arts and Design are expected on Tuesday 2nd, November.

Applicants for courses in the Faculties of Financial Studies and Management Studies; Accountancy, Banking/Finance and and Business Administration are scheduled for Wednesday, 3rd November.

Applicants into the Institution’s Faculty of Engineering ; Civil Engineering, Electrical/Electronics Engineering, Welding & Fabrication, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Agric Engneering are slated for the physical screening on Thursday 4th November.

Also expected on Thursday 4th November are applicants for Courses in the Faculty of Environmental Studies; Architecture, Urban & Regional Planing, Quantity Surveying and Estate Management.

The Post UTME applicants are to come with original and Photocopies of all their credentials and a passport photograph for the exercise.
The screening exercise holds 9:00am on the scheduled dates at the Admission Office, Academic Affairs Unit of the Institution.

The Registrar stressed that any candidate who refuses to appear for the screening as scheduled above shall not be considered for the Admission.

By: Temilade Odedele

A 24-year-old lady, Joy Onoh, was on Wednesday murdered by some hoodlums in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

The lady, a graduate of Mass Communication from the Benue State University awaiting call up from the National Youth Service Corps, was allegedly raped and killed at North Bank Area of Makurdi.

She was said to have received a call from someone to come to a particular place at North Bank, a suburb of Makurdi to supply clothes.

The mother of the deceased, Mrs Grace Onoh, a widow with three children and native of Obollo Afor, Enugu State, told journalists that Joy who was her first child told her that she was going to North Bank to supply clothes to some people.

Mrs Onoh who said she lost her husband about twelve years ago narrated how her daughter had been struggling to send herself to the University through the little business.

The family lives off Adikpo Street behind NUJ secretariat Makurdi.

“Joy left home on Tuesday to deliver Turtle Neck cloth to some persons at Federal Housing, North Bank.

“She left the house at about 4.50pm and did not return again. I made frantic efforts to call her phone but someone busied it. Her sister Cynthia called and this time, it went through but she cried and asked her sister to send her bank details.

By: Temilade Odedele (Shakespeare)

It’s emotional-intelligence, leadership & hard-work in action, An Opinion Article by Odedele Temilade Damilola, A campus Journalist and the Former Editor-In-Chief of Namacos Editorial Board, Osun State Polytechnic, Iree.

This article is opined to open the eyes of the aspirants who are vying for the position of Student Leader to what’s necessary for them to achieve their set goals

(1) Be very clear on why you want to be President.

What are your top 3-5 reasons?

(2) Leadership is about providing value and serving your members.

People will vote for you (assuming it’s a vote) if you can provide more value than anyone else. What are your 3 unique strengths (or unfair advantages) that make you the best possible choice?

(3) Value comes in lots of forms, but primarily by either (A) Solving Problems, (B) Realising Ambitions.

After all, decision making is driven biologically by PAIN & PLEASURE aka Problems & Ambitions

Therefore, I would take the time to get to know students intimately by asking them about the problems they face and the ambitions they strive for. A framework I use is, “What do you want to achieve by the end of next year?” [ambitions] and “What do you believe might stop you from achieving that?” [problems]

What are the top 5 problems that you want to help ‘fix’ as President?

What are the top 5 ambitions you want to help students achieve?

(4) How are you the best person to serve?

Once you have examples of real students with real P&As, I’d be putting a case together for how you are the best person to serve them. What events/services are you going to run to solve/reach the P&As, what products are you going to promote, launch etc.

What are the 5 most beneficial events you’ve ever attending?

What are the top 3 SKILLS/MINDSETS/Pieces of new KNOWLEDGE that you got from those events?

What are the 5 most beneficial products that you’ve purchased in your student lifetime? What benefits do those products give you? How can you provide new products to students to help them alleviate problems or reach their ambitions?

(5) Once you’ve done this self-reflection and research, you need to build a team to help you campaign.

I’d be aiming for 5-10 close, trusted people who have widely different skills (project management, marketing, communications, design etc.) and working backwards from the date that the election is and counting the days.

How many days is it?

Say it’s 50. You need to be doing 1 thing every day that is new and valuable to show people why they should vote for you. This should then be shared on social media (90% on Facebook).

Don’t just brag, but split content into:

(1) Share Wins
(2) Educate – share your knowledge,
(3) Collaborate – interview key people on campus,
(4) Manage Up – show that you’re working with staff,
(5) Inspire – share your vision and wisdom,
(6) Testimonial – have friends on camera or in quotes say why they’d vote for you.

Have your team help you by taking photos, teeing up interviews, speaking with students, doing email/facebook outreach, speaking with community businesses about how you can create win-wins etc.

(6) Mindset is everything.

From the second you read this article, you need to believe, if you think you would be a good fit and can genuinely help people, that you are the person for the job.

You are going to be President.

You have to KNOW that, and then work backwards from there.