SAMOA, “Youth Unemployability” – rush for clicks turning legacy media outlets into misinformation hub
It’s not clear whether they were deliberate. Two legacy media organisations recently published stories that sparked debate and drew backlash for the Federal Government from the citizens. The first was the Daily Trust article on July 4 and the second was the Africa Independent Television, AIT, story on Tuesday, July 16, 2024.
Early this month, Daily Trust published a piece alleging that the Samoa Agreement the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu signed on June 28 promoted LGBTQ whereas it was not. Expectedly, the government was vilified by many for signing a deal that threatened to undermine people’s culture and religion.
But few days after the Federal Government said it would drag the newspaper to court if it failed to retract its libelous publication, Daily Trust quickly published a lengthy article titled ‘Samoa Agreement: The Daily Trust Story Got It Wrong’ in which it pointed out the holes in its earlier publication while also setting the record straight.
While the dust created by the Daily Trust’s libelous story was still settling, on Tuesday, the AIT published that the ‘Nigerian government has admitted that most youths are unemployable’. The television quoted Blessing Ehi-Ugwu, the National Coordinator of the newly inaugurated innovation and effectiveness in the acquisition of skills, IDEAS to have said this at a meeting with World Bank officials at an implementation workshop for the innovation grant facility.
However, a video clip from the event, which was attached to the published article by AIT, depicts the contrary.
The National Coordinator who appears to have been answering questions from newsmen was seen expressing concerns about the rate of unemployment among the Nigerian youths particularly the graduates and how skills acquisition could help stem the tide of unemployment in the country.
Experts note that both publications could incite the citizens against the government and urge the mainstream and digital media organisations to get their facts right before publishing their stories.
They contend that the rush for traffic-generated revenue has made many media platforms abandon the ethics of journalism and rely on hearsay for publications.
‘How is the FG closing the gap of unemployment?’
In February, the PUNCH newspaper reported that Nigeria’s unemployment rate stands at 5.0 per cent. In closing this gap, the federal government has unveiled numerous initiatives including the 3MTT and the Outsource To Nigeria Initiative (OTNI) which are believed to open opportunities in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Information Technology (IT)-enabled sectors.
The OTNI is a joint venture between the government and the private sector. This initiative, when fully implemented will open millions of job opportunities for Nigerian youths particularly those who are skilled in IT and related areas, the presidency assured. Similarly, the 3MTT program under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy is targeted to create two million jobs by 2025.
Though not yet implemented, the federal government announced in May its plan to empower at least 5,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with N10 million each to fund their entrepreneurial ventures after their service year. Experts assert that with the implementation of this initiative and others, a large number of Nigerian youths will be fully employed and there will be a decline in the unemployment rate.
‘Nigerian youths — vibrant, gifted, and resourceful’
On different occasions, the President Bola Tinubu administration has marketed the Nigerian youths to foreign investors. Few months ago, when the President received a delegation from Meta Platforms Incorporated led by Sir Nick Clegg, former UK Deputy Prime Minister and Meta’s President of Global Affairs, at the State House in Abuja, he harped on the potential of the youths describing them as vibrant, gifted and respectful.
“For us in Nigeria, we have a vibrant, gifted, and resourceful youth population. Recognizing that the future is most likely to be AI-enabled, we have to prepare our youths and make them ready to compete and participate in the global economy,” the President was quoted as saying to the delegate in a statement by Ajuri Ngelale, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity.
‘Daily Trust, AIT and the danger of misinformation’
Reports have shown that misinformation poses danger and could destabilise a country. Experts advise the government to create a fact-check platform where the veracity of news stories can be confirmed by the citizens. “With fact-checking, false information can be debunked and some of the people who read the fact-check change their minds and stop sharing the false information. On the other hand, increasing the media literacy of the public helps to ensure that people can identify false and misleading information and debunk them with basic fact-checking,” Mr. David Ajikobi, the Nigeria editor of Africa Check explained.
