Vice president Kashim Shettima has urged journalists in Nigeria to uphold truth, not convenience as their supreme editorial policy as it is in doing this that journalism fulfils its duty.
He stated this while speaking to the 2025 Annual Conference of the International Press Institute (IPI) Nigeria, where he said every nation is ultimately defined by the character of its media.
The vice president pointed out that Nigeria’s democracy depended on a media ecosystem anchored on ethics, integrity and fact-based reporting.
He lauded the Nigerian press for its resilience over the years, noting its capacity to “rise in defence of the public’s right to know” even in difficult times.
Shettima explained that the media had the power “to summon the collective courage of the people” and equally the ability to dismantle dreams or dismantle illusions.
He commended the ‘sincerity’ of the Nigerian media in exposing foreign interference and disinformation, stressing that the majority of journalists refused to compromise their platforms.
“However, complex our relationship may be sometimes, one of the proudest moments for journalism in contemporary Nigeria has been the sincerity with which the overwhelming majority of you continue to confront the rising tide of foreign information manipulation and interference.
“You have stood firmly against disinformation and refused to surrender your best support to foreign compatriots,” he said.
He, however, decried the actions of a ‘minority’ who, according to him, manipulate unverified data.
“The pen is only mightier than the sword when it is deployed in the pursuit of justice and objectivity,” he said, adding that without ethics, media work becomes “a dictatorship of text and airwaves.”
The vice president appealed to the media to protect the country’s democracy, saying it is the media’s most sacred duty.
“Democracy is safe only when power is under constant observation,” he said, adding that such monitoring must be rooted in integrity.
While noting that the mainstream media is not the real danger to Nigerian democracy, Shettima described social media actors as a mix of “serious commentators” and ‘mischief-makers’, whose influence fuels disinformation and deepens national divisions.
Shettima said previous attempts by leaders to intimidate the press failed because the Nigerian media space was too diverse and resilient.
“It is impossible, utterly impossible, to have a successful dictator in Nigeria,” he said, adding that “Never in our history has any person or government succeeded in suppressing the media community.”
