Experts task journalists on retirement
[FILES] Journalists. Photo: PIXABAY
Chairman, Board of Trustees, Vision Centre for Communication and Development Advocacy (VICCDA), Otunba Gbenga Onayiga, has charged journalists to explore opportunities in public relations, advertising and entrepreneurial skills, among others, as viable means of survival after retirement.
He gave the charge, yesterday, at a one-day interaction on: “The Journalist Life After Retirement” during the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Congress in Lagos.
He also advised practitioners to plan for the rainy day, as according to him, there are many hazards attached to the job.
“There must be life after journalism practice. Journalists must learn entrepreneurial skills to fall back on after they retire from practice.
“There are some job-induced ailments that must be addressed. Professions have their various ailments and some of us don’t know. Some of us don’t go for regular medical checkups. The reality is that once the journalist is dead, their clients will move to the next available person on the desk,” he warned.
Onayiga also cautioned journalists against indulging in reckless lifestyles.
He said most media practitioners indulge in alcohol, smoking and womanising, which the board chairman stressed, later in life, tell on their health at retirement.
He also charged journalists to have a retirement plan, saying: “Because of the nature of our jobs, we are too engrossed in it, as it is a 24/7 job. We don’t have time to plan for our future. We need to plan for our future as sack and retirement are imminent.”
Giving solutions on retirement plans, Onayiga advised journalists to buy into projects such as investing in landed properties (housing and farmlands), cooperative societies, limiting expenses, exploring public relations and advertising practice
Others, he stated are, being a stringer for international media organisations, writing biographies for people, who have untold stories as streams of income, as well as acquiring more academic qualifications to prepare for life after practice.
Also speaking, the National Trustee, VICCDA, Bimbo Oyetunde, emphasised investment in online media business and agriculture, especially small-scale farming.
She said pension as well as benefits from trips, story writing and workshops during journalism practice cannot sustain journalists after retirement.
She, however, charged journalists to engage in corporative societies as means of survival.
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