By Mmesoma Ike
Few nights ago the FCT council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) survived a near fait-accompli by certain fellows who were bent on sending the union to the abyss.
They had masqueraded as supporters of a certain individual who purported to be interested in an electoral position at the council.
The impasse that ensued from a Congress held by the leadership of the Union was crystal clear an indication of a grand plan by some individuals to have their ways or the highway (in a manner of speech).
These folks had gone forum shopping for all manners of persons and reportedly paid them to throw spanners in the wheel of the congress if need be.
The categories of those who trailed their wake to the meeting at Utako where the NUJ’s office in the FCT is located include ‘beer gulpers,’ marijuana smokers and persons who spared no faith in their consumption of tramadol, among other hard and illicit drugs.
And the evidence was there for all to see as their supporters carried bottles, pocket-knives, motorcycle cables, to unleash untold mayhem if the outcome of the congress swung otherwise.
Thank goodness that wisdom prevailed as more discerning elders of the gathering tacitly allowed them to chorus their way through the night. And indeed they disclosed a script to hijack the Chairmanship and Secretary positions of the newly constituted Credentials Committee to screen Aspirants vying for the November council elections.
With this, they went to the streets, market places and pubs of Abuja bragging like Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon.
No sooner had they felt satisfied with their plot of hijacking the credentials committee, the committee in its independence met to elect for itself principal officers for its function. It was at this point that the parable of the Assyrians who refused to acknowledge the hand of God in the affairs of men played out.
Like the fall of the god of the Philistines, Dagog, before the Ark of Jehovah, their ‘anointed proxy’ who according to their plan would emerge the Chairman of the committee and who was to defy common sense, morality, godliness and transparency, to smuggle in some unqualified aspirants, was unanimously rejected as Chairman by other members of the credentials committee.
The fellow was accused in clear, unmistakable terms of bias, and an unflinching history that does not guarantee transparency to all aspirants in the race.
Undoubtedly, this person became crestfallen from the development. More crestfallen after realizing that one’s deeds, whether good or bad, do eventually catch-up with them at unexpected moments.
Well, the point being made is that the Committee has made its choice for principal officers. Alas however this choice doesn’t seem to go down well with certain interest blocks at the National level of the Union who, it is alleged, have sworn to reject the membership of the credentials committee they once endorsed. A committee duly agreed to by a Congress where they ‘charioted’ an untraceable and unusual crowd that filled the hall in a Roman amphitheater style.
Insiders at the National Secretariat say that highly placed persons of interest stationed there, are poised to discredit and to dissolve the Committee, all in a bid to repeat the Biblical story of the two women who appeared to King Solomon laying ownership of a baby.
Whilst one of the women wants the child killed and decapitated, with them going away with equal halves; the real mother who understood the pangs and pains she felt during pregnancy and delivering, not to talk of the joy that flowed through her maternal veins, arteries, auricles and ventricles, begged for the life of the innocent child.
She went on to ask the All Wise-King Solomon to, instead of granting the request of the false mother which included decapitating the child, give the impostor the baby Alive and hearty.
That Child is the NUJ. The question now is, who is the True mother of the baby, and who’s the impostor with a mission to claim an ‘Unmerited’ mandate ?
Without going far, the answer is in John 10:10, where the Bible tells us of the attributes of the ‘Mandate-Thief,’ which is to : Steal, Kill and Destroy.
What this means is that, whoever this Impostor is, the person is ready to pull down the Entire NUJ structure if he or she is not made the Chairman of the FCT Council of the union come December 2024.
Given this therefore, is it a progressive move for the National Secretariat, as insiders alleged, to want to instigate a constitutional crisis in a state council to give it reasons to impose itself in a Kangaroo fashion ?
One would have thought that the entire “five fingers” of the Secretariat led by respectable, and responsible gentlemen would shy away from being soiled by the proverbial red oil. But thinking so is seemingly fast-fading into an imaginary wild goose chase and a grandiose hallucination.
If that be the case, who then would save the union from the path of ignominy ? Will the elders fold their hands and legs, sit and watch the conscience of a respectable professional body overtaken by market forces propelled by an ungodly ego from an individual’s family feud?
Does the NUJ constitution 2023 as amended permit the National Secretariat to instigate crises in sister state councils as a forerunner to taking over the structures of the latter?
Is the case of selective amnesia in the application of the Union Constitution what the NUJ needs at this time of healing ?
To think that the National office would seek to anchor strength on the provisions of such areas as Article 4 of the Union’s constitution, without drawing the same strength and inspiration from Article 3 of the same constitution tells of the proverbial Voice of Jacob and the Hand of Esau.
Mathematically, 3 comes before 4. So, why is it convenient for the minds at the National to skip Number Three, for Number 4, except if it is to be interpreted that more erudite minds are fast becoming students of the Supreme Court Judgment in the matter of the Imo State governorship election where a distant 4 became number 1 and the winner of the poll.
An arrangement that has defied all strands of logic, and arithmetic.
Article 3 of the NUJ Constitution 2023 (as amended) states inter alia:
MEMBERSHIP
“1. A person shall not be a member of the Union, except if recognised by the National Secretariat of the Union on the recommendation of the state council.
“2. (a). In addition to the provision in Article
“3. (1), a person to be so qualified shall also possess a minimum of first degree or Higher National Diploma with cognate experience in Journalism, Mass Communication or Media Studies obtained from a recognised educational institution, with a working experience of not less than 12 months in a recognised media establishment, including online medium.
“Such online medium should be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and recognised by the National Secretariat based on the recommendation of the State Councils.
“(b). A graduate of any other discipline who wants to practice Journalism shall acquire a Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Journalism, Mass Communication or Media Studies from a recognised educational institution.
c) Membership of the Union shall equally be accorded to a graduate of any other discipline with cognate experience in the practice of Journalism in ‘A’ (emphasis on A – singular: one) recognised media organisation, 10 years Before 2023 with Diploma in Journalism from a recognised educational institution.”
What this means in essence is that those on the Credentials Committee must first and foremost possess a certificate/degree in Journalism or Mass Communication or have a PGD in the aforestated field should they be a graduate of any other discipline before being considered qualified enough to merit membership of the Committee..
The other side is that Aspirants and would-be contestants must meet the Requirements of Article 3 of the NUJ Constitution before contemplating contesting the election.
Even more, there is the need now, more than ever, for interested persons at the National to take a more holistic look at the constitution. The era of piecemeal preview inspired by whatever motivation should be discarded for the progress of the entire body
Anything short of this is asymptomatic of the desire and willingness by those involved to throw the Union into crisis and disrepute.
Moreso, the Union leadership at the upper level must pick a clue from His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu himself, especially from his ministerial appointments.
Tinubu has demonstrated a heart large enough to deserve a Global Golden Badge (GGB).
He stretched his hands to the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the appointments of Bianca Odinaka Odumegu Ojukwu (APGA), wife of the feared War veteran and former Leader of war time Biafra, Late Chief Odumegu Ojukwu; and Nyesom Wike (PDP), FCT Minister.
This posture is the Hallmark of cerebral leaders and statesmen who are driven by their love for their people.
Little wonder the likes of Senators Victor Umeh, Tony Nwoye, Eyinnaya Abaribe, described President Tinubu’s fatherly appointment of Bianca Ojukwu as Minister as beginning the process of national healing and integration.
Well, whether it is the proverbial yam or cocoyam that is boiled, higher reasons must prevail at this point.
The Credentials Committee must be allowed to do its work, as all Aspirants must subject themselves to its deliberations and conclusions regardless of whose infantile ego was bruised in the election of the committee’s principal officers.
And the National Secretariat must be Responsible, Reasonable and Responsive enough not to set the FCT Council ablaze especially now that a new NUJ President is warming up to take over the Union and redirect it to higher grounds.
Elders don’t burn down the clan just because they are embarking on a journey to a distant land !
Mmesoma Ike (PhD), a Public Affairs Analyst writes from Abuja
