PREAMBLE
In the invitation extended to me, the organizers of the Bagauda Kaltho Memorial Media Lecture Series, warehoused under the auspices of the Africa Media Development Foundation(AMDF), had requested me to speak on the theme: “Free Media for Sustainable Development: The Role of Journalists”. After a careful appraisal of the topic, I have taken the liberty to moderate the theme to read: “The Nexus between the Mass Media, Sustainable Development and the Promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria”. The moderation is meant to take the discussion out of the realm of abstraction to a more inclusive and concrete pedestal. I hope the organizers will pardon the slight modification. Having said that, we shall now proceed to talk on the theme in more concrete and elaborate terms.
INTRODUCTION
With an estimated population of 210 million people and over 300 ethnic groups, Nigeria is home to the largest concentration of black people in the world. It is the most populous country in Africa and constitutes the continent’s largest economy. One of the country’s greatest achievements lies in her vast expansion and exposure to the media. Since the return to democratic governance in 1999, Nigeria has made tremendous progress in the field of mass media especially in the electronic and social media arena. This giant stride was occasioned by the deregulation of the media industry. In our present globalized world characterized by information and communication technology (ICT), the power and potential of the mass media cannot be underestimated. This is to the extent that everything about us as a people and society has become media dominated resulting in high levels of awareness and consciousness.
As at January 2021, the population of internet users in Nigeria stood at 104.40 million subscribers (representing 49.71 percent of the total population of the country), up from 85 million in 2020. Also, as at January 2021, internet penetration in the country was 50.0 percent. This is aside the millions of others who have access to television and radio sets. These demographics convey in clear terms, the ubiquity of the mass media in our lives. The mass media play important role in setting agenda for public discourse, including shaping the perception of people about their government, the environment, culture as well as tradition of the various segments of the Nigerian society. In a nutshell, the mass media occupy a vantage position in society as the drivers of social, political and economic development. It is in the light of the awesome power and influence of the mass media, that this paper examined the nexus between the Mass Media, Sustainable Development and the Promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria.
In doing this we segmented the discussion into a number of parts. After the introduction, part two of the presentation clarifies the key concepts used while the third part appraises in detail, the subject of sustainable development with an eye on the place of the media as a mutual ally in development matters. The forth section discusses the link between the mass media and the sustainable development goals in Nigeria while part five brings the presentation to an end by way of conclusion and recommendations.
CONCEPTUALIZATION
It is germane at this point to clarify some of the concepts use in this paper to forestall ambiguity and the possibility of misunderstanding. These concepts are those of the mass media, sustainable development and Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, respectively.
Mass Media
There is no universal one size fits all definition of the concept of mass media. However, a number scholars and commentators have made attempts at defining the mass media in specific terms. Imhonopi and Urim (2004, p. 22) see the mass media from the prism of sociology by asserting that the “the mass media play a major role in the promotion and sustenance of the norms and values of society”. This perspectives views the mass media as representing the conscience of society by ensuring that citizens do what is right knowing full well that the media as the watchdog of society, could expose anti-social or criminal behaviours. Defleur (1971), presents a somewhat similar position to the extent that he conceptualizes the mass media as constituting a social institution or a social system.
Nwanne (2013, p.58) provides a much more elaborate and all-inclusive definition of the mass media as “all the tools, gadgets, instruments of mass communication professionally deployed to reach heterogeneous audiences spread across disparate geographical areas. They include newspapers magazines, television, radio, outdoor advertisement and the recent wonder of our times, Internet, among others”.
Sustainable Development
The term sustainable development, is a multidimensional and multi-disciplinary concept covering almost all spheres of human activity. The word ‘sustainable’ itself, means something that lasts long while ‘development’ implies a change that is considered desirable in a society. It was in realisation of the links between environment, economic development, and poverty that the United Nation’s Brundtland Commission in 1987 coined the term ‘sustainable development’. The Commission defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present (generation) without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland 1987). The basic pillars of sustainable development are: economic development, social development, and environmental protection at the local, national, regional, and global levels (United Nations 2002). In other words, sustainable development strives to achieve economic development that can be maintained well into the future and for all human beings.
The Brundtland Report describes the common challenges facing the earth, as: growing populations; securing food security; threats to and conservation of species and ecosystems; energy use and depletion of energy sources; industrial development; increasing urbanization; and the relationship between poverty and environmental degradation and inequality between the developed and developing world.
The goal of sustainable development has been to achieve a sustainable society. This means a society in which the economy and population size are managed in such a way that they do not do irreparable harm to the environment by overloading the planet’s ability to absorb waste and pollution, replenish its resources, and sustain human and other forms of life over a specified period of time. The objectives of sustainable development are targeted at : reviving growth; changing the quality of growth; meeting essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation; ensuring a sustainable level of population; conserving and enhancing the resource base; reorienting technology and managing risk; and merging environment and economics in decision-making. In a sustainable society the needs of people are satisfied without depleting natural resources and thereby reducing the prospects of current and future generations of humans and other species.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked goals identified by the United Nations (UN) at the Sustainable Development Summit in 2015 with 169 targets. It is designed to be a shared blue print for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. The SDGs or Project 2030, refer to a new, universal set of goals which the 193 member states of the United Nations, Nigeria inclusive, are expected to use in framing their agenda and political policies. These goals expand and follow the millennium development goals adopted in the year 2001. The SDGs which were adopted in September 2015, have a deadline of 2030. According to Wole-Abu (2018), the SDGs instrument examine the root causes of poverty and the universal need for development that works for all people. They became operational globally in January 2016.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: AN APPRAISAL
The major tenet of sustainable development is the fact that it is not just an improvement in a system but that such improvements are further sustained through a continuous process of improvement (Kenechukwu, S.A; S. Theophilus & N. Vivian-Peace, 2017). Development is not sustainable if it degenerates downward in quality. Arua and Duru (2010, p.1) define development ‘as a qualitative improvement in the living standard of members of the society.’ The quality of life in any society, like Nigeria, is measured by indices such as the literacy rate, rate of employment, distribution of income, availability of social amenities, decent housing, improved medical facilities, equity and educated citizenry.
The sustainability of these parameters of developments is measured by its ability to equitably meet development and environmental needs of present and future generations. For Boon (2006), sustainable development is an alternative development strategy for improving the living conditions of the human population without degrading the quality of the environment. It is also a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are consistent with the future as well as present needs. The core of sustainable development is to take care of the present as well as future needs of man and the society.
According to Soubbotina (2004, p.9), sustainable development could probably be called ‘equitable and balanced’. This means that, for development to continue indefinitely, it should balance the interests of different groups of people, within the same generation and among generations, and do so simultaneously in three major interrelated areas – economic, social and environmental. So sustainable development is about equity, defined as equality of opportunities for the wellbeing of people as well as about comprehensiveness of objectives. Owolabi & Olu-Owolabi (2009) opine state that sustainable development should be seen as the totality of the good life and overall welfare of the people and not mere economic growth, hitherto erroneously considered as development.
The World Commission on Environment and Development, (1987) gave a holistic definition of sustainable development as the ability to make development sustainable – to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. From the avalanche of definitions above, (Harris, 2003; Dernbach, 2003 & Stoddart, 2011) teased out three essential elements of sustainable development. These are economic, social and environmental development.
Economic Sustainability: One of the major variables for measuring the level of development is the economic parameter. Harris (2003) states that an economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt and to avoid extreme sectorial imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production. In this regard, Ebiringa, (2012) and Kenechukwu (2015) noted that one major means of boosting economic sustainability of developing nations is through entrepreneurial development. The quality of performance of the entrepreneur determines whether capital would grow rapidly or slowly and whether the growth involves innovation where new products and production techniques are developed.
Social Sustainability: Harris (2003) explains that a socially stable system must achieve fairness in the distribution of opportunity and adequate provision of social services including health and education, gender equity and political accountability and participation. Soubbotina (2004, p, 9) sees sustainable development from the prism of “equitable and balanced”, which to him, means that there should be equitable distribution of wealth and social amenities.
Environmental sustainability: An environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base, avoiding over-exploitation of renewable resource systems or environmental sink functions and depleting non-renewable resources only to the extent of that investment is made in adequate substitutes. Dernbach (1998), advocates that effective governance requires that a nation considers and protects the environment and natural resources on which its current and future development depends. As a member of the international and global community on sustainable development (Adejumo & Adejumo, 2014), suggest that Nigeria shares in the effects of technological advancement, specifically environment management. The summary of the foregoing discussion is that sustainable development is built on three solid foundations: economic sustainability, social sustainability and environmental sustainability.
MASS MEDIA AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE NEXUS
The relationship between the mass media and development is mutual and symbiotic in nature. Each complements the other in mutually-inclusive ways. Sustainable development entails meeting both equitable development and environmental needs of present and future generations. According to Kenechukwu et al ( 2017), there can never be meaningful development without communication and for a nation’s growth in socioeconomic development terms, the mass media must be supportive by giving priority to news and pieces of information that are potentially development-driven.
Communication, both in conception and application, is instrumental in dealing effectively with the issues of sustainable development. It is for that reason that Okenwa (2002) opines that communication is central to the process of development to the extent that the dependence of one on the other has virtually been taken for granted. The relationship is interdependent and symbiotic in nature. According to him, communication creates a conducive atmosphere for sustainable development and provides the medium of disseminating development messages as well as mobilize the populace for development projects.
The mass media have contributed immensely to the sustainable development of a country. Khalid, Ahmed & Mufti (2015) state that the media, with specific reference to the collective entity of newspapers, radio, television and the Internet, are important in shaping the development process of a country. The media set the public agenda and act as the gatekeeper of public issues. They perform the watchdog role especially in political transparency and fight against corruption. According to Kenechukwu (2014), information is imperative for the success of any development project. The rationale for sustainable development, therefore, can first be understood in the context of the role which the mass media can play in development of nations. The mass media set agenda for public discussion and can mobilize the citizens for societal objectives in the sphere of politics, war and sustainable development.
An offshoot of the role of mass media in sustainable development is development communication which refers to the process of intervening in a systemic or strategic manner with either media (print, radio, telephony, video, and the Internet), or education (training, literacy, schooling) for the purpose of positive social change. The change could be economic, personal, as in spiritual, social and cultural, or political (Mcphail, 2009). Development communication, in this context, means an integration of mass media in the modernization process. This integration is a continual process just as Baran and Davis (2006) remark that until a nation is well established and its economic development well underway, mass media must be supportive rather than critical of government. To operate effectively, Kenechukwu (2015, p.295) maintains that ‘the mass media should accept and carry out positive development tasks that aid national development.’
Even though sustainable development as a project, is designed to create room for equitable development and even distribution of development growth across the developed and developing nations, it is however, worrisome that many countries of Africa, Nigeria inclusive, have remained largely underdeveloped irrespective of global efforts to ensure even sustainable development. This is due to factors such as backwardness in technology, low standard of living, economic recession, bad government and corruption in institutions of government.
There is also the question of imbalance in communication flow from the media-producer nations of developed economies to the media-consumer nations of the developing economies. Information is at the centre of sustainable development and dependence on media technology from the West has equally widened the gap in the attainment of sustainable development in the developing world. The control of the global media by the developed economies has further stagnated the development efforts of the developing economies through news monopoly and communication imbalance. To achieve news monopoly and imbalance, the western powers often adopt two strategies: shaping the communication channel and determining media content and market penetration .Kenechukwu et al (2017) cautioned that as long the chain of dependency is still tied around African economies, the attainment of sustainable development may remain a mirage in the developing countries.
Despite the challenges affecting the success of sustainable development such as (a) corruption at various levels of government, (b) low living standard due to recession, (c) mono-economic system in which government expenditure is tied to global oil price, (d) ineffective policies about national economic crisis, (e) population explosion leading to starvation, (f) poor media content and programming, (g) poverty, (h) inadequate education and information system, (i) extreme rich-poor divide, (j) natural disasters, (k) oil pipe-line vandalisation and (l) ethno-religious violence etc., the mass media, as agents of sustainable development have contributed to development goals in a number of ways. Kenechukwu et al (2017, p.278) identified such contributions to include:
Production of movies and documentaries on government’s development projects; for example, the need to keep our drainage systems clean or stop violence on animals;
Writing of editorials and features as means of promoting government development efforts;
Production of radio and television jingles containing advertising messages of development efforts of government, corporate organisations and individuals;
Use of press releases to address certain government issues on development.
THE MASS MEDIA AND THE PROMOTION OF SDGs IN NIGERIA
Nigeria was one of the one-hundred and eighty nine (189) countries from across the globe that embraced and endorsed the United Nations Millennium Declaration in New York in September 2000, which comprised eight (8) goals, eighteen (18) time-bound targets and forty-eight (48) quantitative indicators (United Nations, 2003). The goals were captured in the declaration document in sequential order of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality rates; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; including ensuring environmental sustainability and lastly, developing a global partnership for development.
However, upon the expiration of the implementation timeline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the international community through the United Nations in collaboration with the Heads of States and Governments of the one-hundred and ninety three (193) member nations, launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a new development agenda. Variously referred to as Agenda 2030, Project 2030 and Vision 2030, the SDGs was framed into seventeen (17) goals, one-hundred and sixty nine (169) targets and two-hundred and thirty (230) indicators. Like the MDGs, these goals are conceptualized and prioritized in the development agenda in a hierarchical order of ending poverty; eradicating hunger; ensuring good health and well-being of the people; ensuring quality education for all; achieving gender equality; ensuring provision of clear water and sanitation; ensuring affordable modern energy for all; promoting decent work and economic growth; creating industry innovation and infrastructure; reducing inequalities both within and among countries; achieving sustainable cities and communities; ensuring sustainable consumption and production pattern; controlling adverse climate action; sustaining life below water; protecting life on land, promoting peace, justice and strong institutions and lastly strengthening global partnership (UN, 2017).
Globally, there is a crying need to address the SDGs with their targets and indicators. Although there have been a number of agreements on sustainable development, the awareness level is still very low as many people do not know about the SDGs and what they are meant for. In most developing countries like Nigeria, the strength of achieving success with national projects such as the SDGs lies in the ability to create awareness of the project. This explains the heavy reliance on the mass media for the propagation of the SDGs. The mass media which is made up of radio, television, and newspapers play a key role as an institution in the society as channels through which information is disseminated to the people.
According to Lasswell (1948) the three functions of the mass media are surveillance of the environment, the correlation of parts of the society in responding to the environment and the transmission of social heritage from generation to generation. In addition to these functions, Wright (1959) added a fourth function of entertainment. It is therefore pertinent to note that these functions of the media are carried out in various ways which can either be through news reporting, editorials, criticisms of activities of government etc.
For the mass media to be of immense benefit in the realization of the SDGs, they need to have the capacity to be part of the implementation, reporting and monitoring of the goals. To be able to do this, they must be equipped with the relevant skills required to enable them carry out their duties. The key to achieving the SDGs rests on the following drivers: information access by the people, access to justice, capable institutions to push the process, accountability and transparency, peace and security, an informed media and support of the civil society (Wole-Abu, 2018).
For the mass media to function, they must also have the freedom to perform their duties in the society, and the aim of the SDGs which is to foster development cannot be achieved if there are no changes in behaviour. The mass media therefore act as the change agents by ensuring that they involve all the stakeholders in the communication value chain. Essentially, at that point any communication that emanates from the media is termed communication which will be vital to achieving development. This is why Servaes (2005) argues that there are five types of communication: behaviour change, communication, mass Communication, participatory communication, advocacy communication and communication for structural and sustainable social change. Media practitioners are critical agents in driving the above outlined communication processes. This is however, not without some hiccups.
To Be Continued
Dr. Akor is of the Dept of Sociology, Faculty of Management and Social Sciences, Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria.
Email- linus.akoryusuf@fugusau.edu.ng
