By Cajetan Mmuta
The outgoing Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano, has challenged politicians preparing for Nigeria’s 2023 general election to learn from the triennial elections of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Anambra State council on how best to run issue-based electioneering campaigns.
Obiano, made the call through his Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. Don C Adinuba when he received in audience the new executive on a courtesy call to his office at Awka the state capital.
He reminded politicians that politics should not be a do-or-die affair.
Members of the Anambra State Council of NUJ had at her Triennial Delegate Conference held in Awka on Friday last week elected Dr. Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, a Mass communication lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka and South East editor of Authority newspaper as State Council Chairman, alongside six other executives in the state.
Adinuba said that “Anambra State is moving in a new direction in its development from next month when Professor Chukwuma Soludo, an internationally recognized economist and a former Central Bank governor who reformed the country’s financial system, will assume office as the state chief executive, the new administration needs technocrats like Dr. Odogwu in various areas of the state who will help him drive the rapid progress of the state.”
He pointed out that “The era of adversarial journalism is over, just as the days of ‘publish and be damned.’ Both the government and the media need to be on the same page of development in the overriding interest of society”.
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He commended the camaraderie which marked the electioneering campaign of the NUJ election and the outcome as “both those who won the highly competitive election and those who didn’t hug one another once the results were announced, promising to work together as brothers and sisters.”
Earlier, the chairman of the newly elected State NUJ Council, Dr. Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, said the media remain partners in progress with the government.
He assuring that journalists in the state would continue to uphold the ethics of their profession in the discharging their duties.
