Jacob's Opinion

Professor Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob of the School of Arts & Science has advocated a more communitarian role for journalists in Nigeria to help counter violent extremism in the country.

Professor Jacob was speaking recently in Abuja, on ‘New Perspectives in War and Peace Reporting’ at a Media Roundtable on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) organised by the Office of t...

Few heartwarming stories come from Nigeria’s northeast region. In the last two years, the Boko Haram insurgency, poverty, Islamist fundamentalism and youth disenfranchisement have dominated news from the three states that make up the region. I was therefore overwhelmed last week when I ran into an inspiring story of women empowerment at the sidelines of the

The American University of Nigeria (AUN) will host a peace and development conference on Wednesday June 11, 2014.   The conference aims to chart new paths to increased access to education, better security, and youth employment.

The 1st AUN-API International Peace & Development Conference is being promoted by the Adamawa Peacemakers Initiative (API). This is an organization of community, religious, ...

Just as the development of the Telegraph revolutionized news reporting in the 19th century, new ICTs have fundamentally transformed the way news is gathered, reported and received. The news audience in contemporary society is more informed than ever before, more technologically savvy and increasingly, aware of breaking news even before it breaks on mainstream media.  

Rachel Bartlett has written eloquentl...

I recently asked my first year media students at the American University of Nigeria to stay off social  media (including Whatsapp, Facebook, Tw...

Recently, the Governor of Borno State in Nigeria’s northeast region, Kashim Shettima said the Islamist sect Boko Haram is better armed and better motivated than the Nigerian military. The Nigerian federal government quickly dispelled the Governor’s claim and asserted that the military was on top of the situation. The following day the sect killed many more people in Borno State.

Thou...

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau

The Englishman, Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888-1935) later renowned as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ in David Lean’s classic was one of the most bizarre guerrilla entrepreneurs during the First World War. Lawrence joined Arab Sheiks rebelling against Turkey, then an ally of Germany. With support from the British, Lawrence organised Sheiks and their followe...

China Central Television (CCTV) is making some bold in-roads into Africa. It has recently announced several technical vacancies in its east African operations. It is interesting that while the UK government is cutting back spending on BBC World Service, China is expand...

While the international community continues to dither over Somalia, Islamic fundamentalists have taken over control of the country’s information space and other key strategic assets. This article discusses the precarious media environment in Somalia and revisits discourses on Information Intervention, conceptualised by Jamie Metzl in 1997. It examines the nature of UN’s ‘Information Intervention’ in Somalia and argues that the international community can do more by dra...