Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Honourable Yakubu Dogara has said that any feud between the Executive and the Legislative arms of government is a normal communication to make democracy grow to become a trustworthy platform in the eyes of the citizens.
Dogara pointed out that the crisis that erupted when the executive accused the National Assembly of padding the 2016 budget was a ruse by the executive, which according to him used the media to report such thing.
Represented by the Chief Whip, Hon. Garba Alhassan, on the occasion of a colloquium on elections, corruption and roadmap to 2019 in Kaduna Wednesday, organised by Kaduna State council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Speaker noted that 75 per cent of the survival of democracy depended on the role played by the media, and urged journalists to do more for the survival of democracy.
Speaking on the theme of the colloquium titled, “2015 polls: Reminiscence, Lessons, Challenges and Projections”, the speaker described the feud between the NASS and the executive as a normal democratic interaction.
He said “Media must not be used, there is nothing like budget padding, it is not in our lexicon, it is a clear case of misinformation.
“NASS went into screening of some nominees by the executive, but before we know it, the media said there is a face off between lawmakers and the executive, it is interaction and not a face off.
“I therefore call on media practitioners to avoid yellow journalism because it leads to a confused society.
“Do your job in a way that what you write is factual and reality of our time because this colloquium creates opportunity for us to sort out our challenges before 2019 election.
“Elected leaders will learn from this platform because media, like the executive, legislature and the judiciary, is very important to our democracy,” he explained.
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