Adedayo Emmanuel
Women in privileged positions in Nigeria have been called upon to assist other women and support the course of women in the country.
The call was made by the Editor of Health Style Plus Online, Mrs. Yinka Shokunbi at a roundtable organised by the International Press Centre in Lagos recently.
Themed ‘The role of the media in combating gender related hate speech online through objective and conflict sensitive reporting,’ the roundtable provided training opportunity for online journalists and bloggers.
In her presentation, Shokunbi said, “Women in power should come together to proffer solutions to issues militating against women,” she said.
According to her, the narrative about women have been changing since the Beijing conference of 1995 and the Nigerian media should advance women issues.
“In any society, women represent poverty. Even in the church we talk about the ‘widow’s mite,’ this means women give their all,” she said.
“Women have been seen as the face of poverty in the society and people need to know the new narratives,” she added.
She however tasked the nation to give women the needed chances and create empowerment for women to take their rightful position.
Querying the Nigerian leaders, Shokubi asked if anybody is empowering women other than making them campaign tools.
“Are they empowering women to have skills? Or were they only making money available to buy clothes for them during campaigns?” She asked.
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She however pleaded the national leader should create more chances for women who are always vulnerable. “Give us the same opportunity and see if women will not advance,” she argued.
Shokunbi also noted that women are the ones bearing the brunt of the problems they did not create in the society.
“Women suffer a lot of the societal problems. Unresolved conflicts were caused by men and these problems make women and their children end up on the IDP camps.
“Do we report what brought them to the IDP camps? Yet women who gave themselves up for food to survive with their children would still be stereotyped. Women need to take and find a common ground to change the narratives,” she advised.
In his remark, Director of the International Press Centre, Mr. Lanre Arogundade pointed the attention of participants to a research by Amnesty International that revealed the alarming impact that abuse and harassment on social media are having on women.
Arogundade also noted that women around the world are reporting stress, anxiety or panic attacks as a result of harmful online experiences which factors are reducing the already limited spaces women have in politics.
Managing Editor Online, the Nation newspaper, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin in his presentation advised journalists to be careful not to fall victim of the crime of hate speech.
“Hate speech is a crime and we have laws to handle them which journalists must not offend,” he said.
On how to combat hate speech, Otufodunrin said, “The media must fully understand what hate speech is all about, and it must avoid indulging in it, we must get familiar with what hate speech is.”
He also warned online journalists and bloggers to beware of what they post on social media.
“Be careful of what you post online. For journalists who are bloggers, they know there is a code of ethics. A journalist should refrain from publishing inaccurate and misleading information. And when such information gets published, it should be corrected promptly,” he advised.
While the nation prepares for the 2019 general election, it is observed that women in politics often get discouraged by gender based hate speeches.
Otufodunrin enjoined the public to give qualified women the chance to participate actively in politics and seek elective positions.
“Aspiring women politicians who are also qualified should be supported. They should not be disqualified based on their gender. If at all they have to be disqualified, it should be based on the fact that they are not qualified,” he pleaded.
