Again, Isiguzo emerges NUJ president as veterans task journalists on better Nigeria

Information minister shuns confab

The National President, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo, has been elected unopposed to lead the union for the second time.

The announcement was made at the Seventh triennial delegates’ conference 2021 held at the Dr. Michael Okpara Auditorium, Umuahia, Abia State.

This came after his main contender, Yusuf Iliyasu, withdrew from the election.

Other candidates who returned unopposed were the National Treasurer, Dele Atunbi; National Deputy President, Alhassan Yahya Abdullahi; National International Auditor, Ladi Emmanuel and the National Financial Secretary, Samuel Dada.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was invited as one of the guest speakers at the media conference, shunned the event as he neither appeared nor sent any representative.

MEANWHILE, journalists, under the platform of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), were yesterday tasked by some of their veterans to do the needful that would make Nigeria work better despite its ethnic and religious diversities.

They spoke at the opening session of the NUJ seventh triennial national delegates’ conference declared open in Umuahia, Abia State capital, by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Works, Bob Ogu.

The governor appreciated the journalists for choosing Abia State for their conference, which he said, was privileged to host.

The conference, with the theme, “Media In Times of National Renewal,” was according to the NUJ National President, Chris Isiguzo, to enable journalists to do self-appraisal and chart new direction as well as elect new Central Working Committee (CWC) members.

The Guest Speaker, Mr. Emma Agu, a former Managing Director of Champion Newspapers and currently Managing Consultant of True Vision Newspapers, Gavinta & Associates, Abuja, stressed the need for national renewal, noting that the country has been moving forward and backwards.

Also, a veteran journalist of the defunct National Concord Newspapers and now the traditional ruler of Umuanyi Community in Isuikwuato Local Council of the state, His Royal Highness, Eze (Dr.) Uwadiegwu Ogbonnaya, posited that with more highly educated people in journalism, the practice today should reflect the same, lamenting that the profession has been afflicted with many things.

He queried the rationale for the recent threat by the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in Anambra State while it did not do so in the troubled North-East and its nearby states/zones.

Veteran George Izobo, who was NUJ president 36 years ago, urged journalists to tolerate one another and show politicians that it is possible for them to work as one united country.

Noting that the NUJ will be 70 years old in Nigeria next year, he recommended that the national leadership that would emerge from this conference should celebrate NUJ at 70 next year.

Another past President of the NUJ, Bonnie Iwuoha, noted that the conference is the first being hosted by the South-East many years after the one held at Enugu and wished the delegates a peaceful and successful conference.