BY INALEGWU SHAIBU

ABUJA-Senators Smart Adeyemi and Joshua Dariye yesterday said poor remunerations for journalists may hamper the implementation of the recently passed Freedom of Information Act.

The two senators, who spoke to newsmen at the National Assembly complex in Abuja, lamented that the law had not been put to test by journalists since its passage.

“For this nation to be able to meet the need of the aspiration of the populace, the media must play its role very critically, in doing that the FOI law will enhance the dual responsibility of a journalist in the country, professional responsibility and social responsibility.

“History will not forgive the present generation of journalists if they did not take up the advantage of the bill to let us all work together to protect the society so that we can have a nation that will meet the aspiration of the citizenry so that the future generation of Nigeria will be proud to be Nigerians.

“The greatest quest to our stability as a nation today is unemployment caused by institutionalized corruption. The FOI law is to empower journalists to expose corruption, if journalists don’t do that then you have betrayed the nation and you have betrayed the society and indeed those of us who spearhead the passage of the bill,” Senator Adeyemi, PDP, Kogi State, said.

On his part, Senator Joshua Dariye, who also spoke on the FoI law, said journalists needed better remunerations to implement the law.

He said: “I think it is beyond the FOI law, embracing the institutional framework on which we lay Nigeria is very important.

“We are giving journalists an impossible task, these people are not well paid,  how do you want them to do an impossible task?