Nigeria Content Online

Media organisations
in Nigeria are corrupt and do not report events if they are not bribed
to do so, Rotimi Akeredolu, the President of the Nigerian Bar
Association, said in Lagos on Thursday.

Mr. Akeredolu, who
was guest speaker at the distinguished Management Lecture organised by
the Nigeria Institute of Management, said, “Our journalists must strife
to strike the realistic balance between the demands of their profession
and the parochial interests of money bags.

“I know a number of
them are here. If you don’t give them money, this thing would not be
published. You can say I said so. Quote me in the paper. ”

During the lecture,
titled ‘Management of the Electoral Process: An imperative for
government of the Nigerian state,’ Mr. Akeredolu called for a reform of
the electoral process in a way that election tribunals would conclude
all cases before victorious candidates are sworn into office.

“No candidate must be allowed to deploy the resource of the state to fight opponents,” he said.

New electoral process

Another lecturer at
the event, Jonah Elaigwu, a professor of political science at the
University of Jos and President of the Institute of Governance and
Social Research, condemned the number of political parties in Nigeria.

“We must
re-register political parties. Any party that does not win 10% in any
election at the three levels of government put together should be
de-registered immediately,” he said.

Mr. Elaigwu advised President Goodluck Jonathan not to contest in next year’s presidential election.

“President Jonathan
has a right to contest like any Nigeria, but let me advise him. In
spite of people pushing him to run, I would suggest that President
Jonathan should not… let him give us regular electricity; he would
have written his name in gold. Secondly, President Jonathan should not
contest, not because of zoning; but as an umpire who is not a
participant.”

Speaking, the
United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, said the US is
looking towards the achievement of free and fair elections in Nigeria
in 2011 and would be partnering the country to achieve the objective.

She, however, said that despite the appropriation fund allocated to
the commission in 2010, “what we are hearing is that the money has not
been released into the election account.”