THEME: The Importance of Verifiable Information Shared Through Responsible Journalism for Impact Assessment and Sustainable Development.
Introduction
The 2021 AEIAN 5TH Edition of the Annual Charlie Wolf Symposium virtual conference was the newest accomplishment and wonderful knowledge impacted in the series of events held in 2021 by AEIAN. The virtual conference which was held on the 18th of March 2021 on Zoom was to create awareness, promote the importance of verifiable information shared through responsible journalism for impact assessment and sustainable development in Nigeria.
The symposium has five (5) Keynote Speakers/Experts from different backgrounds in academia, public and private sectors formed the panelist who spoke for 8 minutes each on different topics. The conference which had over 60 participants cumulatively, including one moderator started at 16:00 pm (WAT)
Proceedings
The moderator/host Mrs. Wummi Ogunde welcomes everyone and introduces the topic of the meeting and also the aim of the meeting which is to promote the importance of verifiable information shared through responsible journalism for impact assessment and for sustainable development in Nigeria. The opening remark was given by Mr. Ahmed Sanda, President of AEIAN, who declared the conference open before handing it over to the Moderator, she also welcomes President-Elect Marla Orenstein of IAIA to give her goodwill address but sadly she was avoidably absent, but she sent her goodwill video that was played.
Director, Environmental Assessment, Federal Ministry of Environment Mr. Abbas Suleiman, welcomed the participants and gave a brief goodwill address. He also suggested that they should be a journal that will contain all the previous and present Charlie Wolf lecture and circulate it electronically for those who will want to go through it again.
Mrs. Wummi introduces the first speaker as Professor Mrs. Bola Olaniyan who delivered a paper on the topic: Agronomy – Vehicle to Addressing Poverty and Food Insecurity.
Professor Mrs. Bola described agronomy as a science and technology of producing and using plants in agriculture. The general objectives of improving plant besides character in terms of quality are the physical value of the crop, the physical appearance of the crop, as well as quantity in terms of yield; it involves the manipulation of physiological processes in plants and management of soil. She concluded that all these mentioned are factors that have a direct effect on the environment.
She also enlightens that the agricultural sector has been found on average at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as known in other sectors. However, food insecurity decreases the abilities of countries to develop their agricultural market and economy and food security is determining the history of mankind. So, Crops, soil, and atmosphere should be in harmony for a sustainable system. Climate change is a serious trend affecting crop production and food security; but climate change as an effect, can be mitigated by proper planning, and that is the major problem in Nigeria.
And she concluded by saying it is necessary to understand the environment for us to understand and adapt to appropriate ecological and friendly ecology for a sustainable system. Adequate knowledge, proper learning, technical know-how is required for a sustainable system. Agriculture is a science and is dynamic, so those that will be reporting about agriculture must be knowledgeable so that they will be able to advise the farmer appropriately.
The second speaker Dr. Uche Agbanusi discussed the topic: Why Climate Change Issues are Misunderstood by the Public.
Uche Agbanusi gave his welcome remark and went ahead by lecturing on the topic. He points out that the problem why climate change issues are misunderstood by the public is as a result of those, (i.e., the journalist) that are responsible to pass the message to the people are not properly trained on the issue. He advised that journalists should be trained on issues they are reporting and work in their field of professionalism.
The third speaker, Dr. Eugene Itua, discussed Circular Economy and its Shared Posterity. Which he started by pointing the key questions on the circular economy.
Dr. Eugene went ahead by saying that circular economy is seen in replacing the linear economy that has been operated over the centuries, and the idea of linear economy is you take, use and dispose, while the idea of the circular economy is you take, use and return. He further enlightens on how journalists could increase the coverage of critical circular economy topics for sustainable development. Which is, by following the pattern of environmental journalism which includes the collection of information, verification, production, distribution, and exhibition of information, regarding current event and traits that are with the circular economy.
The fourth speaker Professor Salisu Dan’Azumi delivered a paper on the topic: Water Resource as the Critical Resource for Sustainable Development.
Professor Salisu Dan’Azumi gave his welcome remark and start by enlightening us on the cost of sustainable development and its definition. He went further by explaining ten (10) sustainable development from the sustainable development goals that are aimed at achieving decent lives for everybody and a healthy environment so that whatever that is explored on the mother planet should be sustainable and in other not to harm the environment.
He concluded by saying, the area of clean water and sanitation, 67% of Nigerians lack access to water and currently over 100 million Nigerians lack basic sanitation facilities.
The final speaker Dr. (Engr) Owamah discussed the topic; we are the ones to blame, citizen representation of the climate change and the role of the media.
He summarized it as the Role of the Media, Role of the Citizen, and Climate Change. He defined climate change and its factors on the environment, and climate change leads to global warming.
He points out the reasons why the knowledge of climate change is not known to the public., The knowledge of reporters on climate change is quite poor and most of the media persons are not adequately trained on the issue, and he suggests that they should be trained and retrained on a particular course and also be in the right professional department so that he/she will be able to report with the well-informed knowledge to the society.
Dr. Engineer Owamah concluded by advising that something should be done about the media on how to create awareness about climate change, else they will be no humans on earth in the next one hundred years to come.
Mrs, Wummi gave a recap of the keynote before commencing the question-and-answer and comment session. Participants were allowed to ask questions that arose from the keynote. Over thirteen questions were asked and they were all adequately responded to by the speakers. Mr. Abbas gave his comment and it was well appreciated by Mrs, Wummi.
Dr. Ijeoma Vincent gave the announcement and concluded the session by giving the closing remark.
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