A Virile Press is Good for Democracy

SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE EXECURIVE GOVERNOR OF NASARAWA STATE, ALH. (DR.) ABDULLAHI ADAMU SARKIN YAKIN KEFFI ON THE OCCASION OF THE MAIDEN NUJ PRESS WEEK ON MONDAY, 7^th. JUNE 2004.

The Nasarawa state branch of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, (NUJ), under whose auspices we are gathered here today must be commended for organising this first Press Week since the creation of the state in 1996. Today no doubt marks a great day in the annals of journalism practice in the state. It is a day in which practicing journalists in the state are gathered to take a look at how far they have come and set for themselves an agenda for improvement. We are grateful to Almighty God for making it possible for us to be part of this epoch making event in the state.

Let me therefore use this medium to congratulate you for achieving this feat. We are particularly happy that the NUJ in Nasarawa state has, in a manner of saying, come of age. We join you in celebrating your achievements and hope that you will build up on these in the years to come.

We must commend members of the NUJ in Nasarawa state for standing with us in the years that we have held the reigns of power as stewards of the people of Nasarawa state. The NUJ has reported us and enlightened the people of the state on our achievements and projects. You have followed us through the length and breadth of the state. We thank you for your partnership and the cordial relationship that has existed between you and government.

Nigerian journalists deserve our commendation for their resoluteness in resisting dictatorship in Nigeria. Many of you, in defence of human rights and in the struggle for democracy in Nigeria, lost your personal liberties. Some of you were jailed while some of you lost your jobs. Today, if we look back to these sacrifices, we can all say it was worth it. Nigerian journalists can be said to be major stakeholders in the Nigerian democratic project. I do hope you will continue to defend the democratic liberties which we all jointly won.

The motto of the NUJ is justice and truth. These are important constructs in the practice of democracy. As a democratic government, we seek daily to uphold the tenets of justice and truth in our actions. Justice requires that every individual be considered equal before the law and that we do nothing to unfairly treat those who come before us seeking redress. Truth on the other hand requires that journalists publish only what they know is factual. Our experience over the years however show that the extent to which Nigerian journalists uphold the tenets of justice and truth leaves much to be desired. There are instances where publications emanating from our media houses are nothing but mere fabrications and falsehood. Sometimes we have wondered how the practice of journalism can descend so low. But we do know that these publications are only the handiwork of a few bad eggs in the profession. We have confidence in a majority of the members of the NUJ and we appeal to you to point the searchlight on the tiny minority of your members who are trying to give you a bad name with the intent of breaking your ranks.

Our government realises the importance and role of the media in a democracy. In this respect, we have continued to open up the breadth of opportunities available to journalists in the state to practice their profession. At inception, we met a radio station that was operating from a two-room apartment and a transmission range of no more than 5 kilometres. There was no television station. The only available newspaper was privately owned. In our efforts to improve on the practice of journalism in the state, we constructed a befitting complex for the Nasarawa Broadcasting Service (NBS). We provided the station with state of the art digital transmission equipment and increased its transmission range to well over 300 kilometres. Apart from the radio station, we also set up the television arm of the NBS and supplied it with modern broadcast equipment. Today, our people cannot claim ignorance of our programmes and policies. In addition to this, we took over the newspaper and repackaged it into a national newspaper under the management of experienced journalists. The Nigerian Newsday has since become a reference point for news about Nasarawa state for people within and outside our shores. We also took cognisance of the fact that many of our citizens live outside this country. To serve their interests, we set up the Nasarawa state website on the Internet. Our site has also become both a reference and business point for people around the world. Thus we have solidified our information machinery to serve all interests in and outside the state.

Our challenge to you as you celebrate this press week is to look into ways in which we can improve on our reportage in the state. We believe that our achievements in the face of our meagre resources have not been adequately reported. We fail to see journalists in our midst undertaking investigative analysis of our activities. We challenge you to go round the state and make your independent assessment of the work we have done. You must be interested in our programmes and policies. We expect you to do more than wait to be invited to cover our events. In essence, our challenge to you, as practicing journalists is that you should be proactive in the coverage of our state and activities. We believe there is a lot for you to investigate and report on.

On this challenge, I wish to declare the NUJ Press Week for year 2004 formally open.

Thank you.