By Oso Abidemi
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s media industry have urged the Federal Government and the National Assembly to take urgent steps to safeguard the country’s information sovereignty and address growing digital threats posed by global technology platforms.
The stakeholders, under the umbrella of the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), said Nigeria was at a critical stage in its democratic and digital evolution, warning that decisions taken now would shape the future of journalism, national security and social cohesion.
In a statement issued yesterday, the NPO, comprising the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), said their submissions were in the public interest.
The group questioned whether Nigeria could afford to surrender control of its information ecosystem to unregulated global digital gatekeepers, noting that global platforms now dominate digital advertising markets and determine, through algorithms, what Nigerians see or ignore.
They lamented that Nigerian news content was being monetised at scale without adequate reinvestment in local journalism, stressing that revenues that once sustained domestic newsrooms were increasingly extracted offshore.
Describing the situation as a matter of national security, the stakeholders warned that weakening trusted news institutions would fuel misinformation, disinformation and manipulated narratives, thereby worsening polarisation and insecurity.
The NPO called for a Nigerian designed legal framework, through existing digital legislation or targeted amendments, to correct bargaining power imbalances, ensure fair remuneration for Nigerian news content and preserve innovation, competition and consumer choice.
The statement was jointly signed by NPAN President, Lady Maiden Alex Ibru; NGE President, Eze Anaba; BON Chairman, Salihu Abdulhamid Dembos; GOCOP President, Danlami Nmodu; and NUJ President, Alhassan Yahaya.
