Ikenga hails CMEDIA’s role in amplifying under-reported voices and issues in the South-East

The Ikenga Media and Cultural Awareness Initiative (IMCAI) management, publishers of Ikenga Online, hailed the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusivity, and Accountability (CMEDIA) of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) supported by the MacArthur Foundation for allowing it to project the under-reported voices and issues from the South-East geo-political zone of Nigeria. Chido Onumah, Executive Director, IMCAI, said this while providing an overview of their activities during the WSCIJ team visit to the organisation\’s Abuja office on Tuesday, 1 August 2023.

As part of the intervention of his organisation, Onumah mentioned the monthly town hall discussions (now held as Twitter Spaces sessions and simultaneously live streamed on chosen radio stations in the South-East region), training of thirty journalists and the publication of investigative stories. According to him, the activities have led to public discourse on accountability and good governance. Also, he disclosed that a report on the activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise prompted action from the body and contributed to the CVR extension. Apart from amplifying citizens\’ voices, they collaborated with another CMEDIA partner, Dataphyte Nigeria, to produce a scorecard on governors in the South-East regions. The engagement of celebrities to create awareness around issues in the South-East were some of the strategies Onumah said Ikenga Online adopted to drive conversations.

In her response, Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, Technical Adviser, CMEDIA, commended Ikenga Online for amplifying hushed voices from the South-East. She encouraged them to deploy data journalism to engage the respective state governments. The lecturer at the Mass Communication department of the University of Lagos stressed the importance of multimedia messages that are friendly to Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), advocated for the inclusion of senior citizens, the less privileged, children, and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the zone. While suggesting story ideas, she hinted that Ikenga Online could investigate issues around the social register within the region.

Motunrayo Alaka, ED/CEO, WSCIJ, said IMCAI’s work would open the door for many media organisations to focus on the South-East. She urged the organisation to provide explainers that help Nigerians understand the complexities of happenings in the region even as it highlights positives within the zone to give the people much-needed hope in addition to the amplification of marginalised voices. According to Alaka, the organisation must collaborate with other media organisations with local and national reach to engage its stories and researches. She appealed that Ikenga Online should lead journalism reforms in the South-East through trainings focused on professionalism and ethics as they attempt to breed a new set of journalists by targeting mass communication students in universities and polytechnics.