Mr Abdulwaheed Odusile, an aspirant for the post of President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), has promised to restore professionalism and dignity in the union, if elected.
Odusile made the promise when he and his campaign team visited the Anambra Council of the union in Awka on Wednesday, to solicit for votes.
The aspirant, who also commiserated with the council on the loss of its secretary, Ms Ifeoma Anumba, observed that quacks had invaded the profession.
According to him, the development has resulted to the loss of respect for practitioners.
“Our major programme will be on professionalism, we want to cleanse our union of quackery in the practice.
“There are too many quacks and fakes in our midst, we want to get rid of them.
”We believe that if we are able to do that, we would have been able to restore the dignity of our profession, we would have restored the dignity of the Nigerian journalists.’’
The aspirant also said that the remuneration of Nigerian journalists was too poor and not commensurate with the contributions they made to society.
Odusile also promised that he would work for an enhanced media salary for journalists if elected.
“One of our cardinal programme is to get a unified salary structure for our members, enhanced salary for our members, whereby they will be paid commensurate with what they do.
“Because you and I know that journalists work 24/7 whereas we are not remunerated based on our contributions to the society, we are saying that journalists must be properly paid for the job they are doing for the society.
Also speaking, Mr Adeleye Ajayi, a contestant for the position of National Financial Secretary, said he would bring his wealth of financial knowledge to bear to ensure proper financial administration for the union, if re-elected.
Ajayi, who is an Assistant Editor with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said journalists needed proper financial advice and promised to evolve innovations that would guarantee financial security for members.
“You know financial position of this nature demands commitment, integrity and diligence. I have all these qualities, when you talk about financial administration of a union, then you may be talking about auditing, preparing the books of accounts.
“Apart from preparing the books of accounts, you may also talk about prudent management of funds, all these have been my watchword and that is why I want to rerun for the office of the national financial secretary.
“And we are also thinking of introducing some innovations, by God’s grace, if given the mandate as the Financial Secretary, I think the union should evolve what is called financial advisory services for members.’’
The campaign team, which also included Mrs Bimbo Oyetunde of the Federal Road Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), was received by Mr Henry Nwansike, Chairman and other members of the state council of the union. (NAN)
