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The Federal
Government at the weekend advocated for the establishment of a common
regulation and ethics for media practitioners within member nations of
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Minister of
information and communications, Labaran Maku, said at the opening of
the ECOWAS Ministers of Information and Communications meeting in Abuja
that the role of the media, particularly during conflicts, is too
crucial to be left to the practitioners alone, if the developmental
goals of the region are to be realised.

The meeting was
preceded by that of communication experts in the region, which reviewed
the ECOWAS Commission Communication Policy and Strategy, to recommend
series of proposals to be adopted by the ministers.

“ECOWAS must define
the ethics of the media, without necessarily controlling the practice
of journalism. The time has come to engage the various stakeholders to
ensure that we have a system in place that renders every professional
journalist accountable for his actions, to compel them to obey the core
values of the practice.

“If we have this,
the region will be leading the way in defining the rules of engagement
for media practice, to compel government to be accountable to the press
and the press to be accountable to the citizens of the various
countries within which they are practising,” Mr. Maku further said.

Acknowledging the
media as a strong positive force for development, the minister said it
can also be a negative force, adding that in situations of conflicts
and political instability within nations, the media are hardly neutral
as they take sides with combatants, resulting in the division of the
citizenry and making it difficult for reconciliation to take place.

“Because of the
power and reach of the media, if government cannot professionalise the
practitioners as well as have common rules of engagement to hold them
accountable to the communities they serve, they could contribute to
crisis,” he said.

Freedom of information

He challenged
participants to develop a policy that will support the growth of the
media sector, as well as inculcate in the practitioners the core values
required to make them function as unifiers. He called for the promotion
of freedom of information across the region.

“If we really want
to run a democracy that is accountable to the people, and think about a
proper communication process between the governed and their leaders,
then the sub-region, of necessity, needs a freedom of information bill
that cuts across the entire sub-region, because citizens have been
finding it difficult to access information.

“It is important
that we have a media that unites across the boundaries of tribe,
religion and have common values and ethics that can help the media
stand above the divisions and offer both parties in conflict the
opportunity to express themselves without being part of the conflict,”
he said.

On the place of
technology in communication management, the minister called for
transparency, pointing out that in this modern age, there are only a
few things that could be hidden from the public.

ECOWAS Commission
president, James Victor Gbeho, stressed the need for revisiting of the
instruments that underpin the region’s integration agenda, if the
vision of transforming from an ‘ECOWAS of states into an ECOWAS of
people’ is to be realised by 2020.

He said no other area requires more urgent attention than information and communication, which he described as the key drivers.

He also said there was need to forge agreement on a mechanism for
effective citizen participation in the integration process, as well as
ensuring the region’s security and competitiveness on global market of
ideas, innovation and trade.

Tunisian
politicians were trying to form a unity government on Sunday to
maintain a fragile calm two days after President Zine al-Abidine Ben
Ali was ousted by violent protests. Tanks were stationed around the
capital Tunis and soldiers were guarding public buildings, but after a
day of drive-by shootings and jailbreaks in which dozens of inmates
were killed, residents said they were starting to feel more secure.

The official who
was in charge of security for Ben Ali is to appear in court on charges
of stoking violence and threatening national security.

Sunday is not a
working day in Tunisia and the streets were quiet, but some people were
moving about, shopping for food. For the first time in days, a handful
of commercial vehicles – vans and pick-up trucks – could be seen making
deliveries. The only occasional sounds of gunfire overnight were a
marked change from the heavy shooting the previous night but analysts
say there may be more protests if the opposition believes it is not
sufficiently represented in a new government.

The speaker of
parliament, Fouad Mebazza, sworn-in as interim president, has asked
Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi to form a government of national
unity and constitutional authorities, and said a presidential election
should be held within 60 days. Mr. Ghannouchi held more talks on Sunday
to try to fill the vacuum left when Ben Ali, president for more than 23
years, fled to Saudi Arabia following a month of protests over poverty
and repression that claimed scores of lives.

While there have
been relatively positive noises from the talks so far, the negotiations
may run into trouble when they get down to the detail of which parties
get which cabinet post and how many of the old guard are included.

Coalition talks

Ahmed Ibrahim, head
of the opposition Ettajdid Party, said he and other party leaders would
met Ghannouchi on Sunday. Ahead of the meeting Mr. Ibrahim explained
that “the main thing for us right now is to stop all this disorder. We
are in agreement on several principles concerning the new government.
We will continue to discuss. My message is to say no to Gaddafi: we do
not want to go backwards,” he said, in reference to a speech by Libyan
leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who said Tunisians were too hasty to get rid
of Ben Ali.

Opposition parties
want assurances that presidential elections will be free, that they
will have enough time to campaign, that the country will move towards
greater democracy, and that the power of the ruling RCD party will be
loosened. Two opposition parties have also already said the two-month
deadline for holding elections is too soon.

Another opposition
leader, Najib Chebbi, said after talks with Ghannouchi on Saturday that
elections could be held under international supervision within six or
seven months. Beirut-based commentator, Rami Khouri, said it could take
a while for Tunisia’s opposition of secularists, leftists, and
Islamists to coalesce because there was no unified movement.

The ousting of
Tunisia’s president after widespread protests could embolden Arab
opposition movements and citizens to challenge entrenched governments
across the Middle East.

Dozens of Hamas
supporters rallied in Gaza holding large posters of Ben Ali bearing the
words: “Oh, Arab leaders, learn the lesson.”

Western and Arab
powers have called for calm and unity. The French government called on
Tunisia to hold free elections as soon as possible and said it had
taken steps “to ensure suspicious financial movements concerning
Tunisian assets in France are blocked administratively”.

White House
spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said Ben Ali’s departure could give the
Tunisian people a say in how they are governed and if elections are
free and fair it would deal a blow to the Al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb militant group.

REUTERS

South Sudan’s
polling centres closed their doors on Saturday after a week-long vote
on independence from the north that could end a vicious cycle of civil
war with the creation of the world’s newest nation.

Former U.S.
president, Jimmy Carter, leading a mission observing the vote, said
turnout could reach 90 per cent and that it seemed likely the south had
voted for independence. Exhausted polling staff processed a straggle of
voters on the final day in the southern capital Juba. Some officials
were so tired they were sleeping behind their dusty stalls.

Final results are
due before February 15, but could be announced as early as the
beginning of next month. The vote caps a 2005 peace agreement that
ended decades of civil war between the mostly Muslim north and the
south, where most follow Christianity and traditional beliefs. Northern
officials have appeared increasingly resigned to losing the
oil-producing south – which makes up a quarter of the country’s land –
allaying fears conflict could reignite.

Mr. Carter, leading
one of the largest observation missions, told reporters in Khartoum a
handful of centres had reported 100 per cent turnout and were already
tallying the results. “We already know that in the south there’s been
about an average of 90 per cent (participation) from the stations we’ve
observed and I think they are representative,” Mr. Carter said.

In the few centres
where he had seen counting under way, he said, the votes “were
practically unanimous in favour of separation, with only a few ballots
to the contrary. “It’s highly likely that the referendum result will be
in favour of separation,” he said, but added that no one should
prejudge the outcome.

At least 60 per
cent of registered voters needed to take part for the result to be
binding. That point was reached just four days into the vote, according
to the organising commission. Mr. Carter also said the vote had
probably met international standards and Khartoum said it would
recognise the result, meaning all southerners must do now is wait to
celebrate their independence day, likely on July 9.

The former U.S. president played down threats of popular protests in the north following the vote.

“My hope is that
the opposition parties in the north will be brought into consultations
with President (Omar Hassan al-) Bashir’s party and that they will
prepare for modifications for the constitution,” he said.

Southern
independence campaigners have described the vote as a chance to throw
off decades of perceived northern repression. Mr. Bashir said in a
speech in Khartoum state that neither the north nor Muslims had ever
oppressed the south, but rather the divisions were the legacy of the
ex-colonial power, Britain.

“The south has been a burden on Sudan from independence until today,” he said on state television.

More than 182,000
exiled southerners have returned to the south since the end of October,
according to U.N. figures, many of them fearing repercussions in the
north after the vote. South Sudan’s government believes that figure
could rise to as much as half a million by the beginning of July, said
the U.N.’s deputy humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Lise Grande.
“Services are already overstretched. With more people coming back there
will be tremendous pressures on agencies,” she said.

REUTERS

Two days into the
voter registration exercise, residents in many parts of Lagos State
have continued to experience slow-paced operation at the centres.

The exercise, which
commenced on Saturday nationwide, has been hampered by technical
hitches in Lagos. “This is not what I expect at all,” says Okechukwu
Johnson, a resident of Oregun, who came to register at one of the
centres in Alausa area of the neighbourhood, where registration has not
started as at 12 noon even though the registration officials arrived as
early as 9am. “I expect to see the same vigour with which [Attahiru]
Jega has been boasting in the media at the registration centre. But
imagine I have been standing here for almost two hours and I don’t even
know whether I will be able to register today because this machine is
not working.”

Problems with machines

A survey of most of
the centres revealed an impressive turnout of people interested in
registering. In some centres, people offered assistance to get the
exercise underway as early as possible. Officials of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), were noticed struggling with the
operations of some of the machines. According to Azeez Akinola, a
resident of Ikosi area in Ketu, the inability of the attendants to
operate the machines could disenfranchise many voters.

The situation was
the same in Ikorodu, Mile 12, Ketu, Ojota, Iyana Ipaja, Surulere ,and
many other parts of Lagos. The exercise was characterized by excessive
delay in the registration of each voter. Some of those who turned out
to be registered said it was taking between 30 minutes and an hour to
register a single voter with the Direct Data Capture machine. Sesan
Daini, a resident of Ikorodu, said that in Igbogbo area of Ikorodu
Constituency II, where there are five registration centres, only one
centre worked on Saturday. “It is a deliberate thing by Jega, I
believe,” he said. “I remembered Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)
called Jega to use the Delta State gubernatorial election to test run
the DDC machines so that any unforeseen anomaly can be corrected. He
refused. If we cannot have proper registration exercise, how can we
have credible election?”

Wasiu Ogunrinde, a
civil servant, who lives in Mile 12, said that he was at the Omo-Banta
centre to register on Saturday but left without doing so after a
three-hour wait. One of the attendants told us yesterday that they had
technical problem and today the same excuse is being given as the cause
of delay.”

Improvement soon

Adekunle Ogunmola,
the Lagos State INEC Electoral Commissioner, however, assured Lagos
residents of an improved registration exercise as from Monday. “Let me
just tell you that we are busy in the office now rectifying the various
faults we have noticed,” he said. “As from tomorrow [Monday], I can say
that twenty percent of the centres will be able to register people in
less than five minutes.”

Saminu Turaki, a
serving senator and former governor of Jigawa State, has attributed the
recent spate of bombings in Nigeria to the failure of adequate
intelligence sharing among law enforcements agents in the country.

Mr. Turaki, during
an interview with journalists at the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2, Lagos,
over the weekend, said that it is time for the government to deploy
sophisticated equipment in its fight against crime, adding that Nigeria
has come of age to have state of the art technology. “What we require
is a very good intelligence system like using ICT and satellite so that
we can see what is happening.

“You know in this
era of technology we have to use technology and we need a lot of
intelligence. So, I think it is a failure of intelligence. We have to
change our intelligence gathering system, because to prevent terrorism
is very difficult but if you have very good intelligence then you can
do that, for it is a threat to the nation,” Mr. Turaki said.

Call for positive thinking

Mr. Turaki also
urged Nigerians to desist from negative thoughts and tendencies that
are capable of dragging the nation backwards, adding that citizens and
the government should plan for the future and break away from the
depressing events of the past.

“Government is not about personal thing and I think the biggest problem we have as a nation is that of planning.

“Strategically, you see every country come together to plan for the
next 20, 30, 40 years, but in Nigeria, all we are thinking is negative.
So I think the most important thing is for us to plan. Where will
Nigeria be in the next 50 years? There is a shift from resources
economy to knowledge based economy. But Nigeria is in the primitive
years of mono-culture economy, and it is said that the mono-technology,
molecular biology and others, each of them mono-technology, will be 30
times bigger than the telecom revolution we have today. So, I think we
should be thinking of the future, not the past. Our biggest problem is
that we are rooted in the past,” he said.