. Adesina decries energy poverty, poor reporting of climate change
Ejiofor Alike
The President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mr Eze Anaba, has urged energy editors and reporters to focus on deeper interrogation of the issues surrounding Nigeria’s energy sector, insisting that energy journalists should develop their skills and capacities for a deeper understanding of the industry.
This is just as a former presidential spokesman, Mr Femi Adesina, has decried lack of climate literacy as a major reason for the underreporting of climate change by Nigerian journalists.
Adesina also decried energy poverty and linked it to the poverty afflicting many households in Nigeria.
Speaking in Lagos at the inaugural seminar of the Society of Energy Editors (SEE), themed, “Reporting an Evolving Energy Industry: The Nigerian Experience,” Anaba, who is the Editor of Vanguard Newspapers, argued that energy reporting must align with the media’s agenda-setting responsibility, due to its implications for national development.
He challenged energy journalists to hold the government to account on the oil and gas reforms, including the removal of petroleum subsidy, rather than merely reporting official narratives and press statements.
Anaba raised the alarm that Nigeria’s energy sector was at a crossroads, highlighting the crude supply challenges facing the Dangote Refinery, the impact of petrol subsidy removal, fragile renewable energy adoption and recurring national grid collapses as critical issues demanding greater scrutiny by energy journalists.
The NGE president also cited the issues of oil and gas asset divestments by the international oil companies (IOCs), pipeline vandalism, artisanal refining and challenges surrounding domestic gas supply, as some of the issues that required deeper scrutiny.
“Objective reporting means telling the story as it is, without fear or favour. It requires us to verify facts, balance perspectives, and present issues in their full context,” he said.
“But agenda-setting takes us further. It requires us to identify and bring to public consciousness the issues that are most critical to national development and democratic governance.”
According to him, it is the job of journalists to establish whether the trillions of naira said to have been generated from subsidy removal were translating into promised investments in infrastructure, security and social protection
On electricity, Anaba said recurring national grid collapses were often reported as isolated events without sufficient examination of their underlying causes.
In his presentation titled: “Reporting Climate Change and the Challenges of Energy Poverty”, Adesina, who is also a former President of NGE, identified lack of a good understanding of climate change as a major reason responsible for the underreporting of climate change.
While decrying the attitude of some media houses that dumped climate and energy issues under the Business Desk, Adesina argued that journalists’ knowledge of climate change could be boosted through training and retraining.
“The media have a duty to report climate change, energy poverty, and associated issues that reduce the quality of life of the people. But the media itself has serious challenges, which must be tackled,” he said.
He suggested the creation of independent climate change desks in the media houses.