Abstract:
, , , ,Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation with over 250 ethnic groups with
different cultural and religious backgrounds which hinder peaceful co existence in the society. This study was conducted toestablish the role
of peace journalism as a strategy for creating sustainable peace
inNigeria. The study is situated on the tenets of the social responsibility
theory while the secondary sources of data were relied upon for
analysis.The study revealed that the role of peace journalism as a
strategy for co-creating sustainable peace in Nigeria involves exploring
the backgrounds and contexts of conflict formation, causes and options
on every side,giving a voice to the views of all rival parties to be heard,
creating ideas for conflict resolution as well as exposing lies, cover-up
attempts and culprits on both sides as well as the damages caused by
both parties.Despite this all-important role in co-creating sustainable
peace, peace journalism is challenged by lack of readership/viewership
for peace stories, reluctance by journalists on the grounds that the
media should be objective, resource constraints, safety of peace
journalists is notguaranteed as well as hostile sources.The study
concludes that Nigeria as a country iscurrently faced with issues of
Boko -Haram, farmer-herderclashes, bandits’ activities and kidnapping
on daily basis, the need to restore peace is imperative hence the
relevance of peace journalism to achieve this purpose. The study thus
recommends that peace journalism should be encouraged among media
houses in Nigeria for enhanced peaceful-co-existence.Media houses in
Nigeria should organize workshops with a view to reminding practising
journalists to adopt objectivity as a hallmark of journalism, media houses in Nigeria should acquire drones to enhance the practice of
peace journalism as this would further ensure the safety of peace
journalists on the field and sources with credible information should be
allowed to speak on the basis of anonymity since they are not always
willing to speak to the press for security reasons..
