Osoba, others advocate better welfare for journalists

Chief Olusegun Osoba

Veteran journalist and politician, Chief Olusegun Osoba, on Thursday, called on publishers to take proactive measures to address the welfare of journalists in the country.

Osoba, a former governor of Ogun, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Editors’ House in Ikeja.

He said that journalists were an important resource for the development of any nation, adding that their welfare should be of utmost interest to publishers.

Osoba said that the Press Council Bill aimed at improving the welfare of journalists would amount to nothing without the support of publishers.

“Modern day journalists and reporters are not well paid the way we were well paid in our time.

“It is not a legislative issue but moral appeal.

“No law can force anybody who has no money to pay, but we have to continue to appeal to publishers that they should pay their editors and reporters as at when due,“ he said.

Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to President Mohamadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, told NAN that Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has a responsibility to demand improvement in the welfare of journalists.

“It is a union issue and NUJ should be alive to its responsibility.

“At the level of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, they are the ones who represent the employers; it is the NUJ that can press for the welfare of journalists,’’ he said.

On the Press Council Bill, Adesina, a former President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, said that Federal Government was not going to interfere in order not to be misunderstood.

“It is not a government thing because before you know it, we will be accused of muzzling the press and this government will not muzzle the press,’’ he said.

The President of NGE, Mrs Funke Egbemode, said that the media industry was worst hit by the current recession.

He, however, said the guild would continue to appeal to publishers.

Egbemode said that employers were businessmen who needed to stay afloat.

“In a country that has a bad economy the media takes the direct heat; the dollar is so high, that means all the consumables have gone up.

“The cost of production has gone up and we understand that but we keep appealing to publishers to know that the human resource is important for them to stay afloat,’’ she said.

She said that the guild was playing its part in ensuring that the Press Council Bill became law.

The National President of the NUJ, Mr Waheed Odusile, told NAN said that the union was resuscitating the Press Council Bill.

“We want to review the bill before we submit it but I want to assure you that this legislative year, the bill will become law,” Odusile told NAN.

NAN reports that the twin duplex of the Editors’ House has 10 rooms, a conference room, library and other facilities and it is located in the heart of Ikeja in Lagos.