President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to correct lapses of his first tenure in his final lap in office, which begins on May 29.
He
gave the assurance when he received the leadership of the Nigeria Union
of Journalists (NUJ) led by the National President, Chris Isiguzo, in
the State House, Abuja.
The president, while responding to the
many issues raised by the journalists bordering on insecurity, lopsided
appointments, freedom of speech among others, said that he is going to
improve on what he has done in the last four years.
Acording to him, “there will be a change, a positive change.”
Buhari also appreciated the role journalists play in a democracy, describing them as unique set of professionals.
Speaking
to State House Correspondents on the reason for the visit, Isiguzo
said: “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 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.”
On the recent elections and the role of Nigerians in demanding accountability, the NUJ president said: “Well, there is this post that has been trending on social media that a group of people that elects a bad leader are not victims. They are accomplices. Now that we have voted in our leaders, it is also incumbent on us to put them under check. You don’t elect people and not bother about what they do. You only wait for them to bring bags of rice, bags of salt. A lawmaker that has been elected is coming to donate Keke NAPEP and Okada to you. That is not the reason he was elected. So, it is not only the journalists that will hold leaders accountable, the citizens must also hold accountable those that have been elected at all times.”
Source:- Sunnewsonline
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