Use section 22 of Nigeria’s constitution to publicise govt’s audit report, Journalists urged

Journalists working in Nigeria have been challenged to ensure that they stand resolute on the provision of Section 22 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, to ensure that Nigerians have periodical knowledge of the audited account of governments at all levels. 

The call was made by Sonala Olumhense in a paper he presented at a two-day Audit Reporting Training organised by FrontFoot Media Initiative, holding in Gombe to x-ray state government audit reports. 

In the paper titled ‘Audit Reporting Imperative for Nigerian Journalists’ Sonala Olumhense stressed the importance of the Journalists to be conversant and well versed with the Constitution in order to be able to use it as a document to report accurately and advocate for good governance. 

The paper which was presented on his behalf by Chido Nwakanma, the seasoned Journalists stated that as Journalists, “We aim to sensitize our industry more deeply to this opportunity towards broadening the boundaries of transparency and accountability in our country.”

He added, “It is to arm each reporter and each newsroom with an authority to which they may have paid scant attention.” 

According to him, “To us as professionals falls the constitutional duty to remind politicians, perennially and perpetually, that they work for the people and must account to them.” 

Stressing the power of Section 22, he stated, “In the end, Section 22 means that Journalists have a most important weapon or power to use over politicians in the public interest.

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“But it comes with a caveat: it is a weapon which grows weaker every time a Journalist permits himself or herself to be compromised in the cause of a story, whether because that Journalist accepts a favour to change key elements in it, or not to publish it at all.

“The call of Section 22 on Journalists is that it is powered, therefore, only by our individual and collective courage, and by the Individual and collective courage of every newsroom in our Industry.

“It is why we can read every audit report with authority, ask questions of Auditors-General and Assemblymen and Assemblywomen with confidence, and write our findings with unimpeachable thoroughness and credibility,” he declared. 

In the end, Sonala Olumhense expressed confidence that by holding on to the provision of section 22 of the Constitution, Journalists in Nigeria can change the narrative about the audit report of the country and make the leaders sit up to know that they owe the general public explanations about the resources available and how they are expended.