Take up a Nehemiah Project for Nigeria, Utomi charges journalists

Pat Utomi

Noted political economist and professor of
entrepreneurship Prof Pat Utomi has urged the
Nigerian media and individual journalists to take up
the challenge of assisting Nigeria out of the current
economic and social crises as a Nehemiah project.


Nehemiah was a Jewish leader of the fifth-century
b.c. who supervised the rebuilding of the Jerusalem
city walls and instituted reforms in the city.

Utomi said the media could do so by deploying its
influence towards progressive causes using the
agenda-setting theory and other theories
underpinning media practice. He asserted that the
media have enough influence “to affect the choices
we make as a country through our institutions and
through individual action to advance the course of
nation-building and economic development”.

Prof Utomi spoke as he delivered the 11th Jackson
Annual Lecture of the Department of Mass
Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, his
alma mater. He addressed the topic “The media and
the development challenge in Nigeria at a time of
crisis”.

Agenda setting tasks for the media include helping
to enhance rigour in policy choice, encouraging a
culture of reasoned public conversation on policy
matters and playing up the activities of civil society
that results in stronger institutions with more
effective investment in human capital, Utomi stated.

He said these would lead to “more virile
entrepreneurship and economic growth resulting
therefrom”.

The boardroom guru and educator also emphasised
the role of culture and leadership in driving the
development of nations. “My experience is that
dominant media ultimately influence culture”,
Utomi stated, while “I am persuaded that culture or
values shape human progress.”
Utomi said political leadership is critical to driving
development, with the media providing support.

“Leaders are important because they set the tone of
culture and that determines economic performance.

If culture shapes human progress and media can
help engineer culture the media influence can be a
catalyst for development, economic growth and
social advance”, he added.

is a director in the Africa Practice of leading
global professional services firm and was
scholar-in-residence at  University,
Washington and John Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

He charged media leaders to develop better
strategies to strengthen media institutions given the
critical role they must play to enable Nigeria to
achieve economic recovery, growth and
development. He added, “In my view, the economics
of media in Nigeria which leaves us with
newspapers and electronic media that pay poor
salaries and many times fail to pay for months
diminishes the capacity for performance.

Many media practitioners are caught in a crisis of
existential nature and so lack the sobriety for the
issues in nation-building

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