The Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO), under the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Programme, recently convened an in-situ technical action session in Ado-Ekiti. The event brought together editors, producers, reporters, and media executives to catalyse editorial and operational commitments ahead of the June 20 Ekiti State Governorship Election.
Addressing Documented Gaps
Executive Director of CEMESO, Akin Akingbulu, stated that the training was a direct response to documented gaps uncovered during the organisation’s pre-assessment field engagement in the state. He emphasised that sustainable capacity is built through structured return, accountability, implementation, and honest interrogation of whether commitments made in one session have been acted upon before the next begins.
Akingbulu disclosed that the pre-assessment report had formally directed media practitioners and platforms to resist amplifying unverified information and to strengthen fact-checking mechanisms, particularly across digital channels. He noted that the session was designed to catalyse that embedding.
Safety Concerns Highlighted
He cited specific safety incidents, including the arrest of journalist Omoniyi Feranmi for documenting vote trading and the targeting of activist-lawyer Dele Farotimi, as evidence that independent election coverage in Ekiti required deliberate institutional preparation, not optimism.
Urgency of the Training
The Programme Manager, Timothy Bamidele, submitted that the session’s timing and specificity were both deliberate and urgent. With few weeks to the governorship election, Bamidele noted that the training placed direct responsibility on broadcast journalists to serve as the first point of interception against electoral misinformation.
He emphasised that WhatsApp, cited by 78 percent of focus group respondents as the primary source of election disinformation in Ekiti, remained entirely encrypted and unregulated. This makes the editorial decisions of individual journalists the single most consequential line of defence available before the polls open.
Part of Broader EU-SDGN Initiative
The session formed part of the EU-SDGN Phase II media component, implemented by CEMESO, which targets six expected results. These include enhanced professionalism among media practitioners, strengthened capacity to counter electoral misinformation, improved civic and voter education coverage, and a stronger National Broadcasting Commission.
