A former governorship aspirant in Kwara, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi, has advised journalists to see social media as a dilution of absolute authoritarian mode of news by the fourth estate of the realm.
Abdullahi told newsmen on Friday in Ilorin that social media should be seen as the fifth estate of the realm meant to dilute the authoritarian control and abuse by the conventional media, which was the fourth estate.
However, he noted that the advent of social media is a stressful period for journalism, it had not come to destroy the noble profession.
“This is because the argument for a free press is based on an argument for a free society.
“Over the years, we have absolute power that have been used recklessly most often.
“And because power without control is dangerous as we serve as watchdogs for the three realms, who now watches the journalist?
“But the problem is, the watchers are also not been watched,” said the politician.
Abdullahi, who was a former minister of sports, added that the challenge before every journalist now was how to strike the balance between the need to make the fourth estate accountable.
He added that the journalist therefore use the social media and the need to infuse a sense of responsibility to the use of media power by the social media.
“This is necessary because the social media themselves are unaccountable and uncontrolled by anybody.
“I believe that there is no better time that Nigeria in its development need real and authentic journalism more than ever before than now.
“Trained and professional journalists can employ the weapon of social media as a tool to improve the way we do our work rather than seeing the social media as an evil that has come to take our work.
“This is because we have been trained and one of the basic things we got in our training is to beware of the three Rs: race, religion and region.
“But the kind of comments seen on social media, you will think some people are determined to burn this country down.
“As journalists, we know we cannot do that because not only are we accountable, we are also responsible to the constitution not to do that,” Abdullahi said.
He noted that journalists in the country could not afford to leave the profession for untrained hands as it could be dangerous.
“Nigeria needs professional journalists because information is power, but power without control is dangerous.
“We should not because of the advent of social media back out since one cannot develop a country that is not built.
“We have to build this country that we will relate with one another not based on prejudice.
“We need to see ourselves as one country regardless of the manner of our unification because everyone has been put together by the people for some reasons.
“As journalists, we need to place emphasis on the things that unite us.
“That is the work that the authentic journalists and those who want to learn real practice of journalism for the purpose of national development can embrace as a challenge,” Abdullahi said. (NAN)
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