National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council has bestowed its prestigious honor of Grand Patron on Governor Seyi Makinde for the achievements of his administration in delivery of good governance.
The National President of NUJ, Chief Chris Iziguzo accompanied by Oyo state chairman of NUJ, Comrade Ademola Babalola and other national and state executive members decorated Makinde today at the Courtesy Room of the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.
The governor, while expressing appreciations to Oyo NUJ for the honor of the decoration as its Grand Patron emphasized on the need for journalists to to shun temptation of imposing personal interest on an overriding public interest.
He urged media practitioners to endeavor to adhere to objective and balanced reporting, embrace developmental or solution based journalism, and ensure compliance with ethics of the profession in discharging their duties amidst the temptation of personal interests.
He called for more robust relationship between the media practitioners and government in the overall interest of the public and assured that his administration will continue to provide the enabling environment for press freedom.
“Journalism, newspaper houses, electronic media, TV stations, they’re businesses with interests, we shouldn’t kid ourselves that there won’t be interests because they’re businesses set up by certain people with interests but what is important is for us to identify the overriding interest in the overall trajectory of development.”
“I want to encourage you to hold us accountable as leaders on things going on in our administration, I’ll be the one to acknowledge that look, we’re not magicians, we’re not the only ones with knowledge, we can be wrong also sometimes, but like you know Demola, at the beginning of this administration we were always fighting because we were misunderstood at some points because the vision for us were not quick fixes, they are visions of things that will go beyond mouthing development. We’re laying solid foundation.”
“So, we have to work together, there are challenges and issues that we need to align with including government, the governed, the people in the middle and everyone because like you rightly pointed out, it’s our country, I always say to people it’s our state, yes, you want to contest election amd because of that, the current people must fail, what will such people stand to benefit?
“You can still contest election and win without bringing the house down. Even before you contest an election there must first and foremost be a country or a state, where are we going if there were no country or state? Governor Makinde queried.
Speaking further, he stressed the need for all stakeholders including political actors and media practitioners to align and work together in the pursuit of a better and egalitarian society adding that politics should not be a game of do or die affair.
While remarking on the Supreme Court ruling on Local Government Financial Autonomy, the governor stressed the need for the country to focus more on being productive rather than a consuming nation and distracting itself with issues of less importance in the face of hunger, starvation and poverty.
He noted that the Supreme Court ruling was a distraction from the real issues confronting the nation and emphasized that the real problem of Nigeria remains productivity.
“Just this morning at the project commissioning event, I read that the judgement of the Supreme Court that oh ok, local government financial autonomy and all of that, I will still say it, I think it’s just a distraction. And the issue that we have is that we’re not producing enough, we’re not productive. Whatever it is that we’re sharing in Abuja which is what this FAC is all about, yes, you want to have value for what is being shared but our real problem is productivity.” Makinde said.
The governor lamented the poor capacity of local government to generate revenue outside of the federal allocation wondering how they would survive on their own and the sustainability of such development while reiterating the need to avoid distractions and focus on the main issues confronting the nation.
“I would say that it has nothing to do with us here in Oyo state because since I came in, we’ve conducted local government election twice, and for one day after we held the first election, there’s no caretaker anywhere, we planned, gave allowance for election process to go on smoothly, so it’s not a big problem for us but now this is going to be the discussion from now till maybe one month or so, when issues of hunger and anger are in the land.
“The federal government is saying ok now we have to import food, it’s a big shame for this country that we can not feed ourselves. We’re saying we should go back to those things that will allow us to bring confidence back to our people and to ensure that this country is back on the path of growth and economic progress.” Governor Makinde remarked.
Speaking earlier before the decoration, the NUJ National President, who expressed satisfaction at the sectoral performance of Makinde disclosed that the governor is the second in the last five years to bag such prestigious honor from the body in Nigeria after the governor of Niger state.
Iziguzo noted that even though journalists being regarded as the fourth estate of the realm is saddled with the responsibility of holding government to account, it was important to acknowledge and recognize good performance such as witnessed in Oyo state under the leadership of governor Makinde.
The NUJ national president highlighted some of the governor’s sectoral achievements including health, education, security and particularly in road infrastructure and urban development noting that he had taken the challenge thrown up earlier by Makinde to drive 40km within Ibadan metropplis alongside his team to confirm the claim of quality road project execution contrary to a publication in one of the national dailies that roads in state capital bad.
He however, called on journalists to embrace development or solution based journalism rather over playing challenges confronting the state and nation stressing that other nations across the world have diverse challenges also but have attracted investments and people from other parts due to positive projection of their images to the rest of the world.
Highlights of the brief ceremony attended by members of the State Executive Council was presentation of NUJ Certificate of recognition and award plaque to Governor Seyi Makinde.