The National President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo has revealed what the leadership of the Union discussed with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House on Thursday following a brief closed-door meeting.
Isiguzo who spoke to State House Correspondents on the reason for the visit said the leadership of the Union came to congratulate the President on his reelection and to assist him to set the agenda for the second term.
“Basically, we have come to congratulate the president on his re-election as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and of course, to also make it clear to him that to whom much is given, much more is also expected.
“He’s gone through the first-four years; by May 29, he will be through with that and he’s been given yet another mandate to lead Nigeria for another four years. We also made it clear to him that some of the major challenges we have had in the past four years, this is an opportunity for him to correct them, especially when it comes to the area of inclusiveness, carrying everybody along.
“That is the spirit of federal character principle that is enshrined in our constitution; that he’s got to carry people along, and of course, we talked about the security problem that we have, not just in the North-east, but even the banditry in the North-west; in Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto.
“We challenged him to ensure that the security architecture is overhauled to be able to effectively tackle these challenges that we have. We commended him for the fact that, as we speak now, there is no part of the country that is under the control of insurgents which is good, unlike when he came on board. But we also told him that it is very very important that terrorism is completely stamped out – effectively tackled and not technically degraded. We want it to be out of our national life.
“That was what we told him. Coming to us, we drew his attention to the fact that the journalism profession has become more like a challenge to all of us. The problem that we are having every now and then, and of course, freedom of expression, it does appear that it is taking flight and we said if we are indeed a democratic nation, journalists must be given free hands to ply their trade.
“A situation where there is clampdown and harassment doesn’t speak well for Nigeria as a democracy and we told the president that.”
