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By Oluseye Ojo
The International Press Centre (IPC) and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council, have urged journalists to prioritise issue-based reporting, fact-check political statements and hold candidates accountable for their campaign promises ahead of the 2027 general elections.
They made the call at a two-day media engagement on democratic and accountability journalism in Ibadan, organised by IPC under Component 4 (Support to Media) of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGNIII) Programme.
The engagement examined Nigeria’s electoral environment, citizens’ priority concerns and the media’s responsibility to provide credible information that would enable voters to make informed decisions.
The IPC Executive Director, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, who was represented by the centre’s Programme Officer, Mr. Melody Akinjiyan, stressed the importance of professional journalism in strengthening democratic accountability and ensuring that citizens had access to accurate and relevant information during the electoral process.
He urged journalists to look beyond political rhetoric and scrutinise issues that directly affect the electorate.
“The media occupy a strategic position in any democratic society. Beyond reporting political activities and electoral events, the media have a responsibility to facilitate informed public discourse, scrutinise political promises, hold public officials accountable and ensure that citizens’ voices are heard in the democratic process.
“However, the effectiveness of this responsibility depends significantly on the quality of electoral reporting. An election period characterised by sensationalism, unverified claims, inflammatory rhetoric and the unchecked spread of misinformation and disinformation can undermine public confidence, deepen social divisions and weaken democratic institutions,” Arogundade stated.
Chairman of the NUJ, Oyo State Council, Akeem Abas, called on journalists to uphold professionalism, fairness and accuracy in their coverage of political activities. He stressed the need for responsible reporting that would promote informed public debate and strengthen democratic processes.
He also announced plans to honour Arogundade at the grand finale of the Oyo NUJ’s 60th anniversary, scheduled for November 7, with an award as a Champion of Press Freedom.
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In a presentation titled, ‘2027 General Election in the Context of Democratic and Accountability Reporting: Scanning the Electoral Environment and Reporting Citizens’ Priority Concerns,’ Dr. Taiwo Adisa, former Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, examined the state of Nigeria’s democracy and the challenges confronting the electoral process.
He drew attention to the gap between democratic expectations and realities and urged journalists to interrogate political parties’ programmes, campaign promises, financing and candidates’ records.
He also noted concerns about the electoral environment, including the timing and intensity of campaign activities and the need to place citizens’ concerns at the centre of election reporting.
Adisa emphasised the importance of monitoring campaign promises and assessing elected officials’ performance against their commitments, rather than treating political declarations as established facts.
Another presentation by Olusola Oludiran, an NDR/IPC fact-checker, focused on integrating fact-checking into democratic and accountability reporting.
He explained that misinformation involved false information shared without the intention to deceive, while disinformation referred to deliberately false or manipulated content. Mal-information, he said, involved genuine information used maliciously or out of context to cause harm.
He warned that fabricated stories, doctored images, misleading videos, recycled content, false endorsements and artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes could mislead voters, undermine public trust and threaten electoral credibility.
He urged journalists to verify claims using credible sources and appropriate digital tools before publication. He also stressed the importance of checking statistics, factual assertions, public-interest claims, images and videos.
He noted that political opinions and predictions could not be fact-checked in the same way as verifiable factual claims, while campaign promises required systematic tracking to determine whether candidates fulfilled them.
The engagement called attention to the media’s responsibility to provide accurate, impartial and evidence-based information throughout the electoral process.
