By Ikechukwu Odu

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, yesterday, solicited for prayers from the people of the state to enable him scale through what he described as “unusual times.”

He spoke at the university town of Nsukka, during the 2021 Easter Summit christened ‘Adada Carnival Revival for Socio-economic Transformation and Sustainable Development’ organised by the Nsukka Journalists Foundation, NJF  at the Jerry Marriot Hotel and Suites, Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State.

The governor, who is also the Grand Patron of the Foundation said “I am here to show my respect for the NJF. My speech is short. These are unusual times and I need your prayers. Please, pray for me.”

While urging the members of the Foundation to save the journalism profession by adhering to the ethics and tenets of the profession in their respective media organisations, the chairman of the occasion, Senator Ayogu Eze, in his welcome address, regretted that media practice has been bedeviled by the social media influencers who disseminate fake news to please their pay masters.

Senator Eze, who was also the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress,  APC, in Enugu State in the 2019 governorship election in the state, thanked the leadership and members of NJF, for championing the campaign for more development projects in Enugu North Senatorial District.

He said “As I address you, I do so with a sense of fulfilment that in our own time we are able to rise above bread and butter issues that had shackled the Nigerian journalism practice, to thread the high ground of setting agenda for transforming our immediate environment in a sustainable way.

“Everyone wants journalism for development but nobody wants the journalist to shine the light on the dark side of things. We want the journalist to be a magician who would crusade for society’s well being and greatness without highlighting the foibles and failings of those who control the levers of development and growth. He is expected to tiptoe through the morass of policy failures and somersaults; to look away from the sleaze that confronts him in the discharge of his or her duties and to simply report that all is well.

“On our part as journalists, we too seem to have abandoned our sacred duty of care and diligence to pursue filthy lucre in the form of self welfare above everything else. We seem to have joined the madding crowd in pursuit of a mess of porridge. We appear to have forgotten our role as the guardians of the Fourth Estate of the Realm as we dive headlong into journalism of settling scores and blackmailing anyone and everybody who is not ready to pay our price. The dictum is no longer that of he who pays the piper dictating the tune but that of the piper selling the pipe, his honour, dignity and all to the highest bidder. News headlines are now cast by the newsmakers themselves and not the news writer. That is the sorry level we have descended to.

“Yet, we are confronted by an even bigger devil in the form of the new media where any person wielding an android or smartphone is instantly a news writer and an influencer. They write for a fee and every outing has a separate consideration. For them, it is a recurring cycle of payment ad infinitum. What’s even more frightening about this development is that we regular journalists have abandoned our normal practice ethos to pursue the ball with these promiscuous rabble rousers who pose as news people. We have dropped our pen and paper and recoding midgets for the new wine of instant news. The race to be the first to hit the social media platforms has killed the practice of verifying and balancing stories.”

The Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Chuka Utazi, who was a Special Guest of Honour at the Summit, urged the journalists to rise up and continue galvanisation of policies to redeem the district from years of infrastructural neglect from successive administrations in the state.

The Senator equally tasked the members of the Foundation to support the governor of the state in his efforts to redeem the lost glory of the District.

In his presentation, the Guest Lecturer, Prof. Mathias Ofili Ugwudioha, of the Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, regretted that Nigeria remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite her rich human and natural endowments.

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The Professor who said that over 92.4 million Nigerians are poor, bemoaned the the rising debt profile of the nation which the Debt Management Office, DMO put at N31.01 trillion in its March, 2020 report.

While making case for the creation of Adada State, he said it would boost the attraction of federal government presence in Nsukka zone and equally open up communities for a robust economic development.

While giving a talk at the Summit, a security expert, Barr. Sam Otoboeze, said Nigerians have to prepare for hard times ahead.

He called on governments and good spirited individuals to create empowerment schemes geared towards reducing criminality in our society.

In a seven-point communique which was released at the end of the Summit by the Foundation, it called on the National Assembly to facilitate the creation of Adada State.

Thehe communique which was signed by the chairman of the Foundation, Chijioke Amu-Nnadi,  and other members of the communique-drafting committee also reads “The Summit called on the Government of Enugu State for more infrastructural development of Nsukka cultural zone, to bridge the gap existing between the area and its counterparts.

“The Summit condemned in very strong terms the terror being continually unleashed on the rural people of Nsukka, as well as other parts of the southern and middle belt states, by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen. It noted the harm the attacks were causing farmers and overall food production and urged the Federal Government to do everything necessary to bring to an end the needless mayhem,” among other issues raised.