Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
A Professor of Mass Communication at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Henrietta Chidinma Onwubere, has called for a stronger and more strategic media role in promoting and protecting maternal and child health rights across Nigeria.
Onwubere made the call on Thursday, while delivering the university’s 42nd Inaugural Lecture, titled, “Bridging the Airwaves and Lifelines: Broadcasting, Healthcare Journalism and the Struggle for Maternal and Child Health Rights in Nigeria,” at the NOUN headquarters in Abuja.
She said broadcasting must move beyond entertainment and routine news reporting to become a powerful instrument for public education, advocacy and accountability, particularly on issues affecting the health and well-being of women and children.
According to her, access to healthcare goes beyond the availability of hospitals, medical facilities and health workers.
It also requires ensuring that citizens have access to accurate, timely and easily understandable information about their health and healthcare rights.
Onwubere advocated increased broadcasting in local languages, stronger collaboration between media organisations and health institutions, and more empathetic and people-centred health reporting.
She said such measures would help citizens understand their healthcare rights and empower them to demand accountability from the relevant authorities.
Onwubere also drew attention to the growing threat of misinformation on digital platforms and urged journalists and communication students to strengthen their fact-checking and verification skills in order to promote accurate and responsible health communication.
In her recommendations, she called on the government and other stakeholders to invest in media capacity-building, provide greater support for healthcare journalism, and place the interests of women and children at the centre of communication strategies and policy interventions.
The university don further appealed to the university management to strengthen practical training facilities for Mass Communication students.
She stressed that hands-on experience was essential to delivering quality professional education and meeting the standards prescribed by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
The Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Professor Uduma Oji Uduma, represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Professor Shehu Usman Adamu, described inaugural lectures as important platforms through which scholars share research findings and propose solutions to societal challenges.
He commended Onwubere for drawing on her multidisciplinary background in nursing, education, law and mass communication to examine the critical issue of maternal and child health.
The Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies, Professor Sonnie Oniye, who delivered the closing remarks, praised the lecture for connecting academic scholarship with practical societal concerns and deepening public understanding of the role of communication in national development.