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The Nigeria Academy of Science (NAS) on Tuesday,
called on journalists to get more active in popularizing science
reporting, as this will influence policy decisions that will improve
social and economic development of the nation.

Science reporting, which covers health, medicine,
environment, technology, agriculture, is under-reported in Nigeria,
owing to insufficient information on the part of the journalists as
well as scientists and the society at large, the Academy believes. At a
meeting announcing the onset of a new prize called the NAS-Pfizer
Science Award for journalists, Oye Ibidapo-Obe, the president of the
Academy (which is a body of foremost Nigerian scientists, including
experts in various fields of science, engineering and medicine), told a
group of journalists that it is not enough to report science
superficially. “You, as journalists, need to go the extra mile of
explaining issues of scientific significance to the public. The
scientists cannot go out there, but you are what they rely on for
information, so you need to live up to your calling.”

The prize

According to him, the new prize, which will be given
at the end of each year for the best science report, is designed to
encourage and improve the media’s knowledge in communicating science
topics to the public. Sponsored by Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals
through the Academy, it also aims to strengthen the media’s coverage of
scientific issues particularly those relevant to policy decisions.

“The Nigerian Academy of Science seeks to establish
science reporting prizes for both electronic and print media. This will
be administered by a panel of judges at the end of each year,” Mr
Ibidapo-Obe said. To this end, he says there will be a couple of
training sessions for journalists on science reporting, in order to
enhance their capacity to win the prize.

Akin Jimoh, a science and public health media trainer said the
importance of science reporting cannot be overemphasized, as effective
reporting has the potential of driving important policy decisions. “As
journalists, we ought to do investigative science reporting. There are
issues everywhere that we are not looking at. For example, we have the
budget issues; we can write about what effect the science budget can
have. We have the Abalaka HIV issues which no one is looking at now.
There are lots of issues. We just need to be better trained and
sensitive to science issues.”