Edith CHUKU
Worried by the dilapidated state of its press centre located at Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, the Nigeria Union of Journalists NUJ, Rivers State council, has appealed to the state government to as a matter of urgency, commence immediate renovation of the complex.
NUJ also called on the government to rescue government owned media stations from complete collapse by revamping them.
Chairman of the Council, Mr Paul Bazia-Nsaneh, made the appeal when he led other executive members of the union on a courtesy visit to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications, Dr Honour Sirawoo, in his office.
Bazia commended the state government for appointing Sirawoo, whom he described as a seasoned journalist
to head the Ministry.
He urged the permanent secretary to implement impactful policies that would strengthen professional journalism practice in the state.
The chairman expressed optimism that the perm sec would do well in the ministry especially with his background as a cub reporter who rose through the ranks to a permanent secretary.
“You have grown through the ranks from a cub reporter to become a press secretary to the deputy governor, and covered, various beats.
“You have vast experience on the field as a journalist, and you are in deployment to the ministry of information and Communications at this time.” he said.
Bazia noted that the NUJ under his leadership was working hard to change the narrative of the state, through the state owned-media houses who would help to push the narrative.
He urged the government to revive media houses to meet up with the responsibilities.
“We are going to showcase the areas where the state has strength and where there are investment opportunities.”
In his response, the perm sec assured that the state ministry of information and communications had secured approval from the government for the fencing of the premises of the Rivers State Newspaper Corporations, Publishers of the Tide Newspaper.
Also, that they secured approval for the training of about one hundred information officers, adding that the ministry was working hard to start it’s online publication.
According to him, “to this end, the Ministry’s website which has been moribund for sometime now is being revived. We are going to start an online publication.
“We feel that this ministry can generate revenue just like the media houses because the only difference between them and us,is that we have a full administrative structure and if we expect them to generate revenue we should also generate revenue.”
The permanent secretary further stressed the need for staff of the ministry and it’s parastataals to be regular at work, adding that the ministry under his watch would not condone absenteeism and lateness to work.
Also, that the local government areas must work as a way to realize their expertise, adding that they must report events in their areas to enable the ministry properly informed people about the state.
Sirawoo however, called for collaboration between the union and the ministry. “So we must work together to see that we enlighten the people on what is appropriate and what is not appropriate.
“I also want to put that as a union, we serve the government of the day, even if you have to critique the government you must get your facts right.”
The perm sec who blamed successive leaderships of the union for the dilapidated nature of the NUJ secretariat, said time has come for the union’s leadership to work out an arrangement whereby the union secretariat can be made to generate revenue for the union.
He said one way of achieving that was by engaging facility managers to manage the edifice to ensure proper maintenance of the edifice.
Sirawoo further congratulated the union leadership for the peaceful outcome of the just concluded NUJ election and urged the leadership to work as a team for the realization of set goals.
