Journalists at a 2-Day media training for political reporters in Borno state have been urged to give prominence to reportage of women in politics & leadership positions and also portray women positively to increase women’s political participation in the 2023 elections and beyond.

Veronica Ogbole, Executive Director Women Development Initiative in her presentation lamented the lack of recognition for women in the society highlighting some crucial conventions and policies like the National Gender Policy that Nigeria has approved but not a lot has been done to guarantee that women are recognized and mainstreamed into the affairs of the nation. Ogbole stressed the negative impacts of the lack of women in statutory offices due to patriarchal and biased policies that trivialize women’s ambitions and set them back.

Toun Okewale Sonaiya CEO/Co-founder of Women Radio wfm 91.7 urged the journalists to research and engage women across the state on different issues and avoid relegating women to stereotypical programmes, Sonaiya stressed the need to report female politicians and leaders more to amplify the works they do in the society. She encouraged the journalists to collaborate and share reports on women for cross-publishing to reach a larger audience.

The journalists expressed their commitment to adopting the shared recommendations on how to adequately report women positively across media platforms while urging the female candidates to also make themselves available to the media so they can further support them.

The 2-Day training held on Monday 28 November and Tuesday 29 November 2022
is an initiative of Women Radio 91.7 in partnership with UNWomen with support from the government of Canada.

Esther Alaribe
Women Radio 91.7
news@wfm917.com