|
NUJ President Decries State of the Media, Vows to
picket Thisday ,Compass
Newsdiaryonline Sun Oct 9,2011
Thisday Publisher :Nduka Obaigbena
The National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ),
Mallam Mohammed Garba has lamented the situation in the nation’s
media industry, challenging the Northern Governors Forum and the
office of the Vice President to rise up to the occasion and
salvage the problem of the Kaduna based New Nigerian Newspapers.
Mallam Garba told a news conference in Kaduna today
that the union is
concerned about the high rate of none payment of salaries by
media houses in the country, adding that the union has issued an
ultimatum to ThisDay and Nigerian Compass newspapers to pay
outstanding salaries before October 15 and 21 respectively or
risk being picketed by
the union
He said that if the management and owners of the two newspaper
organization failed to
pay their staff the salaries by the specific date, the
union will have no
choice than to picket the two media houses. While lamenting the
situation of the New Nigeria newspapers, Mallam Garba said that
it was unfortunate that the Northern Governors Forum took over
the media house and has not been able to manage it properly,
adding that “even though they changed the management, I want to
say that the management cannot perform any miracle without
adequate funding.
“When he was governor of Kaduna state, the Vice President was
given the mandate to reorganize the place. Now that he is the
Vice President, he should know that he has a great
responsibility to ensure that the place is working fine. But
this has not been done. We are not unaware that he is the Vice
President of the whole country.
But he is there representing the interest of the north and we
expect him to take concrete step towards assisting the
organization.
“If the New Nigeria Newspaper folds up, it will be a shame on
the Northern Governors and other northern leaders who have
always shouted about Sardauna legacies which the New Nigeria is
part of. It is time for the Northern Governors Forum to be more
proactive in addressing the problems of the New Nigeria.
“The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum has a bigger
responsibility here considering his background and experience.
He should understand that this is a media outfit for the north.
We are not happy with his attitude and that of the northern
governors. If the place collapse, their agitation for the
sustenance of Sardauna legacies will be a fallacy
“There is no reason why the northern governors should not run
the New Nigeria Newspapers well. We are of the view that if they
knew that they will not manage the place well, they should not
have taken it over from the federal government.
“We understand that the issue of gratuity for retired staff is
with the BPE and right now, there is so much allegation of
corruption in the BPE. The Director General should consider the
payment of gratuity of all those who worked in the organization
when it was under the federal government
“For Thisday newspaper, we have written to one of them giving
them till October 16 to pay all their staff including the
correspondents across the country. We have been following
development there and despite the harsh economic situation in
the country, we know that they are doing very well and so, there
is no reason why they should owe their staff.
“We have been following the adverts they make daily and we know
that they are capable of paying this money. If they fail to do
that, we are going to picket their Abuja and Lagos offices.
Apart from the salary issue, we are aware that they don’t have a
condition of service.
“For the Nigerian Compass, we are concerned over what is
happening there and we are aware that they have sacked about 30
of our members. We have told them that such a decision is
unacceptable to us and we have given them till October 21, 2011
to resolve all issues with the chapel and state chapter of the
NUJ.
“If they fail to do that, we will have no choice than to picket
them. However, we want our members to bear in mind that all
steps that we are taking is to protect their interest. If their
management wants to sack
them, I want to assure them that we are solidly behind them. In
any case, no Journalist can remain jobless.
“If they want to sack anybody, they must pay them all their
entitlement because we know that no media owner can succeed
without the Journalists. They are using these media houses to
their advantage and yet, they are not paying the Journalists
working for them”.
|
