When the fourth Estate of the realm is fraught by corruption, all hope is lost.
What is happening in the professional body of Journalists in Nigeria may be one of the reasons why the country is sliding rapidly into a terrifying squalor of corruption.
Indeed, Journalism has been compromised, and highly so. When the watchdog begins to emulate the thief, who then guards the house?
From the top of its national administration, into the chapters and chapels, the Nigerian Union of Journalists has become one huge market for fraudulent wheeler-dealers.
Starting from its national president, Chris Isiguzo, who allegedly forged his certificates and has not been able to prove otherwise till date, to the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) which has been hijacked by jackals unwilling to let go of their putrid tentacles, the NUJ needs intervention from the regulatory bodies as fast as possible.
Bizarre is what any right-thinking person would term a union that hardly fights for its members but increases annual dues of impoverished members from N5,000 to N25,000. It is pertinent to point out that the ID cards, even when paid for, are issued six months into the expiry date.
One may wonder why journalists haven’t protested against this draconian edict of the National President; the answer is not far away. Nobody probes the NUJ. Those who seized power in an election that was neither fair nor free in far away Owerri and gave it to a man whose credentials are still subject to scrutiny have formed a cabal, a group of men and women who determined to hold on to the reins even after their tenure has ended by transferring power to their stooges. This is exactly what played out at the last FCT NAWOJ election which was aborted by the National body on very unethical grounds, when it was apparent that their stooge who did not meet the new requirements set by them was going to lose the election.
Women Journalists had stormed the venue of the election with the determination to change the status quo.
It is absurd, abhorrent to natural justice, and all that is fair and right that the election was quashed at the last minute, using the constitution that did not apply or was not applied when the national NAWOJ election held. All of a sudden, faced with overwhelming defeat, the national VP, who herself rose to power without the rules, decided to apply the rule of the current NUJ ID card of N25,000 as part of clearance to vote.
It is more than ironical that the business meeting, with the credentials committee and electoral committee present, had agreed at the triennial conference on the use of NAWOJ payment slip and receipts as clearance to vote.
Alas, just as elections were about to start, the Almighty VP, Zone D, stormed the venue and canceled it. Power truly corrupts, and the fourth Estate has been corruptly commandeered.
For posterity’s sake, it is pertinent to point out that only in the NUJ are females double-tasked. You pay NAWOJ dues, a percentage of which goes to the national coffers, and then you cough out N25,000 for an NUJ ID card. That is N29,000 as annual dues for one struggling woman who may not be earning any salary because the NUJ has not and has never protected her interest, no matter how many times reports of non-payment of salaries by media owners are reported.
Interestingly, the power-drunk national Exco of the NAWOJ has refused to interface with those opposing its high-handedness, refused to recognize or meet with the caretaker committee formed by the triennial conference after the botched election where the VP closeted herself in an office, refusing to address the team of Journalists including senior members of the profession. The national body instead, like a thief in the night, formed a caretaker committee of members who constitute their camp and termed the earlier committee illegal. To add salt to injury, the committee has fixed February 10 for the election and is insisting that every member pays N25,000 for the ID card before that date. How much do journalists earn? Moreover, by implication, even if your old card is expiring in 2024, it has been declared null and void by the ‘bullyish’ pronouncements.
It is now a matter of saving the fourth Estate from hyenas who are hell-bent on destroying legacies of great men of the pen that they met on the ground and through which they became so powerful.
This is a call to the Minister of Information, the FCT Minister, and other regulatory bodies to step in now to help check the decay.
There must be accountability of finances as these gangs operate unchecked by sidetracking the checks and balances which existed before them. The NUJ needs thorough auditing especially on the national level and the FCT.
The aggrieved NAWOJ members must be allowed to state their case, and a compromise reached.
There must be an arbiter, an independent auditor, else there will be total decay and rot that will affect the society as a whole. The Fourth estate of the realm cannot be left to fall.
Ngozi Njoku
