Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), in a bid to shore up its finances, has been expediting work on the construction of its permanent secretariat at Shomolu area of Lagos.
Deji Elumoye
The project, which was started around 2013, is structurally complete – some 70 per cent by evaluation, but for the roofing and d’cor. It has attained the two-deck design structurally and the council members were elated when they held their June congress, perching on the windowless second floor amid exultant optimism that possibly before the end of the year or early next year, the project will attain full completion for formal commissioning.
Addressing the council members at the novel congress at the site, the chairman, Deji Elumoye, said he deliberately scheduled that June congress to hold there, for members to see for themselves that the council’s executive committee runs an open government.
“I chose that we hold the congress of this month here, so that we can see for ourselves the extent we have gone in our self-help efforts. For a long time, the council has weathered some crises, and this has hampered it from having a befitting secretariat. But thank God, we have reached this level, and like I promised during my election in 2011 that before I leave office, this union would have a new secretariat. With the level we have attained now, we will meet our target.”
The two-storey structure consists of a conference hall, guest rooms, business centre and the union’s administrative offices. The conference hall and guest rooms will be for public use, complemented with a winery. In all, the secretariat will employ 15 to 20 persons.
The secretary, Sylva Okereke, tells TheNiche: “You know, this council’s executive is aware of the health of the media houses in the state. Most journalists have not been paying their check-off dues regularly. Most journalists in Lagos are not even chartered. So the union cannot depend on the pittance called check-off dues for its activities. NUJ is an influential social group. And that place we use at Alausa is not spacious enough.”
Indeed, social psychologists are of the view that since the press is the fourth estate of the realm, its role in the social system – keeping leaders on their toes and making them accountable, while mediating effectively between governments and the people – impels the media to be self-sustaining, so as not to engender a not-so-comfortable relationship with the establishment. Thus, its management has to be creative to be financially independent.
Elumoye, an editor at ThisDay newspapers, might have realised this much and started the project as soon as he assumed office. Perhaps, the union would have to put the first floor into public use and use the proceeds to finish the project.
The officials are keeping the cost so far to themselves, obviously not to give out the wrong impression about its financial status to the government and other bodies it relates with. But actually, the union is utilising the meager fund at its disposal very prudently, shunning some less important engagements in other to see the project through.
Nomination forms for the various elective offices of the union are already being collected by the various eligible officers and their contenders. The chairman pays a nomination fee of N30,000; vice chairman and secretary N25,000; treasurer, financial secretary, auditor and assistant secretary pay N20,000 each. A contestant must up to date with union dues and record 70 per cent attendance, must be nominated by at least two members of his chapel who must have been free of indebtedness to the union.
The Lagos NUJ has effectively and quietly turned some journalists into landlords, courtesy of the home ownership scheme it started since 2007 or thereabout. It is still scouting for more accommodation for journalists to become house-owners by effective mediation and subsidised guarantees.
The election is expected to hold this August, all things considered.
During the media games, ThisDay, the current cup holders, will be slugging it out with about 13 other chaptalised media organisations participating. The game is also thrown open to any media house or journalist the union allows by discretion.
The union scribe, Okereke, describes the annual game “as a platform for journalists to do some physical exercises outside the routine of their time-sapping profession. Prizes are usually given to the first, second, third and runners-up.
Elumoye is just serving out his first term, which began three years ago. It is likely he will contest re-election later this month.
It is easy to speculate fairly accurately, going by the nature of politics of the union, that the current chairman will be returned. The Union has no history of electoral violence, and has a seemingly unbreakable template for ensuring that any winner wins convincingly.
The union enjoys remarkable goodwill within the Lagos political and corporate establishment.