Nigeria Still Relies On Others To Tell Its Story – IHP/USAID
…Says it’s hinders health development
BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – The reliance on foreign countries to tell the Nigeria story is seriously militating against its development, the Director of Integrated Health Programme (IHP) a USAID funded international program, Dr Al-Hassan Siaka has said.
Siaka, who stated this in Bauchi at a one day training for Media practitioners on how to key in to reportage of health issues, noted that Nigeria so much rely on foreign media to tell its story, adding that at the end, such stories are told in the way and manner that best suits the media organisations.
He also said that in most of the cases, the stories no matter how beautiful are told negatively and therefor stressed the need for Nigerians to tell their own stories.
According to him; “We can tell our stories ourselves the way that best suits us. We know the issues facing us, therefore we are in the best position to tell the stories accurately in order to attract the needed attention from development partners”.
He challenged the media in Nigeria to wake up and play the role of promoting health related issues through effective reportage stressing that, “the media should uncover the health needs of the populace and awaken the politicians on what they should do for improvement of the health sector”.
Siaka also lamented that Nigerians recognize the politician who built health facilities but do not recognize the one who build the capacity of the personnel for effective service delivery, adding that the more money is spent on building health facilities without building the personnel to man the facilities affects health development negatively.
The IHP State Director then challenged participants at the training workshop to, “wake up from their slumber and tell the stories the way they are and advocate for more attention from the concerned authorities in order to boost the health of the people”.
