Journalists are largely poor, despite their role in nation-building – Aregbesola

Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has decried the poor remuneration of journalists in Nigeria, saying despite their role as reliable and dependable pillar of nation building, many of them are suffering.

He canvassed for better remuneration for pressmen for the purpose of fulfilling their statutory obligation of strengthening democracy for the good of all.

Aregbesola, who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Barrister Yomi Obaditan was speaking at the formal opening of the 2018 week of the NUJ Osun council on Monday.

He called on the union to embrace quality control mechanism as to rid the profession of quackery, extortion and unwholesome practices that has eroded it’s nobility, and dignity in a way.

In his earlier address, Chief Lekan Alabi, the Agbaakin olubadan of Ibadanland said media practitioners deserve a role in budget planning, implementation and monitoring in local, state and federal levels.

Alabi identified creative and clear headed professionals as essential tools for national development, saying it behoves on journalists to be savvy in finance, budgeting, auditing and other relevant fields to be able to put government on its toes with a view to ensuring that budget proposals are not just in line with the needs of the people but to be seen to be well implemented.

In their goodwill messages, representative of the veteran journalists in Osun state, Kayode Adedire and retired Justice Moshood Kunle Ajeigbe expressed worry over the situation whereby budgeting in Nigeria is overshadowed by political interests leading to delay in budget passage by the National Assembly till middle of a year with reference to 2018 budget proposals.

The duo observed that Nigeria has made mockery of budgeting, making it impossible to operate a budget between January to December.

High point of the opening ceremony was the announcement of the reversal of the purported deployment of some journalists in the employment of OSBC to schools by the Chairman of OSBC management board, Mr.Kola Akanji.

Akanji explained that the deployment was done in error and was corrected immediately, urging newsmen to always uphold ethics of the profession.