Innocent Onoh
Bishop Charles Ighele, General Superintendent of Holy Spirit Mission (The Happy Family Nation), wants Nigerian journalists to be more entrepreneurial by establishing and owning media outfits.
Ighele, a Gospel Preacher and Public Commentator, gave the advice in his congratulatory message to the NUJ for its 70th anniversary, saying such a measure would assist the journalists to say things as they were without fear of job loss when the interest of their employer was at stake.
The Church leader spoke on the prospect of the NUJ after 70 years of existence and said that, for the sector to make headway, journalists should team up and establish media outfits to make an appreciable mark in society.
He said that” The NUJ I knew in those days was more vibrant than it is today. As individuals, journalists were generally more investigative and bolder than they are now.
“Even under military rule,columnists like Tom Bee can still criticise the then governor of what is now known as Edo and Delta states, Samuel Ogbemudia.
“He criticised Ogbemudia for spending too much of government money on a foreign official trip in the state government owned Observer Newspaper.
“He titled the article The Journey that Cost One Thousand Cars”
Apart from the case of the then Rivers State Governor, Diete Spiff who ordered the floging of Minere Amachre and a few others,the journalists of those days were bolder and they helped shape public opinion.
“They were indeed, the Fourth Estate Of the Realm.
He however congratulated the NUJ for the anniversary saying NUJ as a body helped shoulder the moral burden and democratic principles of Nigeria.
He regretted that at present, it was hardly so because of the circumstances journalists operate.
“I do not blame them. They now operate under a more highly intolerant political class.
Many notable media houses are owned by politicians. It has therefore been difficult for the journalists to write what will offend their employers.
“If some journalists can come over to set up media houses as Dele Giwa,Dan Agbese,Yakubu Mohammed and one other journalist did to set up Newswatch. The News and TELL Magazines the sector would make better impact in the society.
“As NUJ turns 70, I will like to see journalists becoming more entrepreneurial and NUJ playing its role as an active partner in the polity.