NUJ and the change of baton
By Achike Chude
Perhaps there are not many descriptions as powerfully poignant, beautiful, and true as that of the great poet and playwright William Shakespeare in his attempt to decode and explain the human person in time and space
“All the world is a stage
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts….”
And so it came to pass on November 27, 2024, that the six-year presidency of Dr. Chris Isiguzo at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the apex body of the ‘people of the pen,’ came to an end in Owerri in a glorious act of self-renewal that has become a three year ritualized ‘burden’ of hope and strength where all 37 state councils of the Union converged to bring an end to an era as well as to birth a new one. In effect, the eighth triennial delegates’ conference of the NUJ in Owerri, Imo State was the last swan song, the last hurray in a cycle, and the beginning of another.
In Owerri, Chris Isiguzo, the actor left the stage for the final time. And because it is said that nature abhors a vacuum, another actor, Alhassan Yahya who had been waiting in the wings in preparation, made his historic entrance unto the stage, beating two other great and noble servants of the NUJ, Dele Atumbi and Garba Muhammed in a race that only one could win.
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It has not always been the case at the NUJ that the ‘House of the Journalists’ in the country would be so united to organize an election that produced a new leadership with so much unanimity of purpose and direction. Past engagements such as the one that took place in Owerri have produced their fair share of rancor and displeasure among the rank and file. Perhaps that has been down to the natural order of politics and politicking in Nigeria and elsewhere that produce their own versions of intrigues and subterfuge that sometime threaten to get out of hand and create embarrassing conditions.
It cannot be said that there were no intrigues going into the eighth triennial delegates’ conference in Owerri. The NUJ will not be an institution run by human beings if there are none. But the glory of the conference was that it began on a high and ended on a high. The winner showed humility while those hitherto in opposition, including the losers, called to show solidarity. The saying is trite that: All is well that ends well. Chris Isiguzo left a union that is intact. And that is of fundamental importance.
But there is a lesson to learn in leadership because it is said that uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. In any progressive and forward-looking socio-politico-economic milieu, whether micro or macro, it should be a natural phenomenon that whenever there is a failure of a process, someone should be held accountable for the failure. And because what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander, the reverse should also be the case that those who do well must be commended so that they would do more.
The unity that was achieved at Owerri and the post-conference consolidation by councils nationwide can only be principally down to the leadership of Chris Isiguzo, the CWC, and the NEC of the Union. They must be commended.
But the road for Isiguzo these past six years could not have been smooth sailing. Certainly not in a human condition. There must have been bumps to go over or skirt by, minefields to avoid and mistakes to learn from – a clear case of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is deeply gratifying to know that in every ramification, during the six year period, the good almost always succeeded in giving the bad a black eye.
And of course, there were the achievements, not just domestically but internationally as he had the honour of representing the NUJ as presiding chairperson of the Belt and Road Journalists Network, an alliance of over 100 journalists unions and associations in six continents of the world for one year from 2023 -2024. He was also appointed as the president of the Congress of African Journalists (CAG) in 2022.
Now, the ball has shifted to Alhassan Yahya, the new president. Winning is one thing. What he does with the mandate is another. But he seems to have stumbled on one of the formulas for success – humility and a desire to listen. Throughout the campaign, his mantra was “No one person is a repository of all knowledge. He has attributed his success to consistency of purpose, an abiding faith and loyalty.
Obviously, the election that brought him to power had many firsts and was therefore unprecedented: the first NUJ president from the Northeast, the first NUJ deputy president to succeed an outgoing president (a plus for Isiguzo), the first female deputy president of the NUJ, Abimbola Oyetunde (another first).
In a period blighted by rising attacks and harassments of the media from all quarters and actors including state and non-state actors not just in Nigeria but the world over, the people of the pen must gird their loins and be ready to defend even more strongly, the democratic space. Obviously, the genuine journalist has to maneuver many minefields in the pursuit of true journalism. Sometimes, he has to make compromises for a stable democratic space, but it must not be a compromise that is fundamentally detrimental to the pursuit of a viable society and nation state. The Nigerian people must come first, not the politicians nor the elites nor private corporate interests.
The Isiguzo administration fought its own fair share of battles against journalist intimidation and harassments in various ways that were visible in the public space. Much more needs to be done.
This piece cannot be complete without talking about the activities of rogue journalists and journalism often practiced by all manners of journalists not in affiliation with the NUJ. But even within the NUJ family, it is sometimes not impossible to find those who seek to operate outside the boundaries of the ethics of the profession. Though they are in the absolute minority we must not forget the adage of one bad apple. They must be called to order.
The inexorable evolution of society is unrelenting and steady in its movements. In its wake, it creates history, big and small. Another round of history has been created within the household of the people of the noble profession. Chris Isiguzo has taken a bow. It is now time for Alhassan Yahya to make his own history.
