The Working Journalists in the Country have been challenged to understudy the workings of the Budget Act to enable them have informed knowledge to be able hold the Government accountable to the people.
This was the summation of the resource persons at a two Day Training workshop on Budget Tracking and Reporting for Journalists in Lokoja, Organised by Stallion Times with Support from McArthur Foundation Held on Wednesday in Lokoja, kogi state.
In his presentation, Isiyaku Ahmed, Project Coordinator, said , for effective monitoring of budget , Journalists should as a matter of necessity understand its preparation, understand the working of Government machineries to enable tracking the infractions.
He charged Journalists to know the reason for the conception of the budget, what is the intention of Government for her citizens and the need to know the sectoral allocation of resources.
He added that the knowledge of the budget would assist the investigative Journalists to know which materials to source to give their stories infallible proofs.
He called for the media practitioners to collaborate with each other for cross fertilisation of ideas with intention to expose short comings of budget implementation.
While calling on the media practitioners not to rely on the yearly reeling out of Budget proposals by the Government who often times gives pass mark to previous budget performance, urged them to relate the Medium Term Expenditure Framework to Constituency projects to ascertain its effectiveness.
Henry Omokhaye, who dwelt on Budget Development Process, advised media owners to strengthen institutional and staff Capacity to shurn out stories that will expose sharp practices in Budget implementation.
Meanwhile, Steve Salawu, who spoke on Budget Mainstreaming in story writing charged Media Men to be ethically minded while reporting Budget to earn public trust in their reportage.
He advise them to always make use of the inverted Pyramid style to anchor their stories ,adding that the stories should be able to create awareness, expose corruption; influence government policies to provoke positive actions for the good of the people.
In a remark, the Chairman of NUJ, kogi state Council, Comrade Momohjimoh Adeiza commended the organiser for the opportunity avail to working Journalists in the state to be abreast with modern trends in reporting budget.
He said, the workshop will equip Journalists , broadcasters with requisite knowledge to educate and inform citizenry of how Government is addressing their affairs through the budget enactment.
According to him” This Training is going to impact on us and will expose us to modern trends in budget reportage. It will help to build our capacity on the budget, not merely reportage , but to be knowledgeable on its implementation and performance.”
The NUJ chairman charged participants to avail themselves of the opportunity to sharpen their capacity and skills for responsible reportage.