Dear Mr, President,
If the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, where to be a human being, it will be a septuagenarian this day, March 15, 2025. That is seven decades! Congratulations!
This profound milestone calls for greater introspection rather than rolling out the drums in merrymaking. The question to ask is if the Union has lived the conviction of its founding. If it has, how well is it positioned to ensure that it remains true to its objectives?
If the Union has lost fidelity to its founding, how can it be repositioned to achieve the principal basis for its founding and existence?
It is easy to be caught up in the frenzy of the moment and gloss over the fault lines that have unfortunately become the hallmark of the Union in the not-distant past.
As it is, it is a Union that has shunned its Constitutional guarantee, where individuals with little or no knowledge of solidarity have taken over across many states and chapels. Where it is convenient for “officials” to use the very laws that the founding fathers, activists, lawyers and civil society have fought against as a weapon against comrades and those with opposing views.
Mr. President, I woke up the very impressive collection by the former National Secretary of the Union, Shu’aibu Usman Leman, detailing some abuses journalists and media practitioners have suffered in the country under the State of Media and Press Freedom in Nigeria. It is gratifying that I was part of that historical document and unveiling in Abuja.
But I dare say that if the next report were to be published, it will be a sad commentary that some officials of your Union will take an inglorious place for their weaponisation of the obnoxious law which is on trial against their own colleagues and comrades.
The Union must take due diligence not to reward these individuals as it is wont to do.
There is the urgency for your administration to sensitize the various organs as to their roles in the Union. Too many press statements even from quarters that have no constitutional privileges to do so. Any organisation that lacks internal control cannot demand accountability from those it should.
More than anything, the integrity of any organisation is its membership. It will be an anathema for a non-lawyer to be a member of the NBA or a non-medical doctor to be a member of the NMA not even a medical technologist can belong to the NMA! It is pertinent you interrogate the membership of the NUJ. This issue has dithered for too long. You have a golden opportunity to reposition this union, reclaim its integrity and set an agenda for the next decade.
Having been a former member of NEC for nearly 12 years, it is trite to restate that my contributions were not featherweight and you of all persons should know better.
I wish you the very best as you navigate the next few years. Congratulations, again, Mr. President.
Emmanuel Ogbeche
Former Chairman and Secretary, NUJ FCT
Former Treasurer, West African Journalists Association, WAJA
And many other these and that’s!
March 15, 2025.
