President Bola Tinubu has charged the media to step up its constitutional responsibility of holding the government accountable to the citizenry.
This is as he congratulated the new President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mr. Eze Anaba, and other elected officers of the professional body.
The president, in a statement entitled: ‘As journalism marches on in the service of Nigeria’, issued by his Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communications, and Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake, described the recent Biennial Convention of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) as an epochal milestone in the evolution of the journalism profession in the country.
He said the peaceful poll by the NGE is a clear signal to the larger society that elections devoid of bitterness and unnecessary rancour can hold peacefully in Nigeria.
He charged the media to step up its constitutional responsibility of holding the government accountable to the citizenry.
President Tinubu congratulated the newly elected President of the Guild, Mr. Eze Anaba, who is the Editor of the Vanguard newspaper, and wished him and other newly elected officials of the guild a most fulfilling and productive tenure in office.
“By its peaceful and rancour-free conduct of elections to elect its new officers, the NGE has sent a resounding message to the larger Nigerian polity that elections for desired offices can be intensely competed for without degenerating into bitterness, acrimony, and needless malice,” the statement said.Tinubu also commended those who lost out in the elections at various levels such as Mr. Bolaji Adebiyi for accepting the outcome and pledging support for the winners.
“This is a light that the NGE is showing that the rest of us may find the way to a mature, tolerant, stable, and sustainable democratic culture.“It is of the utmost importance that the various unions in the newspaper industry such as the NGE, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), and the Newspapers Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) imbibe the ethos of internal democracy in support of professional integrity for the benefit of good governance, stability and sustainability development in Nigeria,” the statement explained.
