African journalists have been called upon to "raise the bar" by improving upon their reportage so as to meet global standards, the Managing Director of Avocado Gold Associates, a Nigerian-based consultancy firm, Mrs Cynthia Eguridu, has advocated. "We have set our sights too low and ought to move towards global excellence. Business, as usual, has to stop, since we cannot continue to do what we are doing but to raise the bar," she said. Mrs Eguridu said this when she presented a paper on: "Moving away from World Class to Global Excellence", at the end of a capacity-building programme for journalists from five West African countries at Cape Point in The Gambia. The programme, which was organised by Guaranty Trust (GT) Bank, was attended by journalists from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. It was designed to help enhance the professional skills of reporters in the brands and marketing, business, capital market and financial sectors. Mrs Eguridu, who deplored mediocre media reportage, stressed the need for journalists on the continent to be professional by abiding by their code of ethics and refusing to be bought by politicians and other personalities. She said journalists should build their integrity by being honest and credible, since the world would soon move to the continent for credible reports. "Media players should be enforcers of corporate governance and this should be done through intelligent and committed investigative journalism." she said. Participants, especially those from Nigeria, deplored the practice where key government officials preferred speaking to the foreign press rather than the local press. They said that amounted to lack of respect for the local press, and, therefore, called for an end to the practice. Earlier, Mr Leke Alder, Principal Consultant of Alder Consulting, commended Ghana for its sound democratic credentials. Mr Alder said Ghanaians had demonstrated that a ruling party or government could be defeated at an election "without hell breaking loose". He said the greatest challenge for Ghanaians would be how to manage the oil that had been discovered in the country. He said it was sad that African economies were yet to match up with those of the developed world, adding that Africans should have been better off with all of their natural resources. Source: Daily Graphic