By AbdulRaheem Aodu, Kaduna and Umar Bayo Abdulwahab, Ilorin
The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), yesterday said it would use every available means to resist any attempt to truncate democracy in Nigeria, saying democracy “has come to stay in Nigeria.”
Similarly, the Organised Labour has threatened to resist any attempt to oust democratically elected peoples’ representatives through military putsch, vowing to lay down their lives in protection of the nation’s democracy.
NUJ National President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Odusile, stated this at the union’s National Colloquium on Elections, Corruption and Roadmap to 2019, with the theme “2015 Polls: Reminisces, Lessons, Challenges and Projections”, organised by the Kaduna state council, in collaboration with the Pax-Community Partnership Projects (PCPP).
Odusile called on relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate and punish those behind such plans to truncate democracy to serve as deterrent to others that “may contemplate such in the future.”
“The NUJ will resist any attempt to change the present democratic government. We will not allow any attempt to truncate democracy in Nigeria because democracy has come to stay in Nigeria,” he said.
Odusile, who said the event “is coming at the right time, x-raying the 2015 elections to serve as a guide to 2019 elections,” described Kaduna council as the “heartbeat of journalism in Nigeria.”
He charged journalists to be guided in their reportage and avoid reports capable of creating crisis in the polity.
The NUJ leader commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for announcing the 2019 general election dates, which he said “will help political parties to prepare ahead of time.”
Odusile, however, called on the electoral body to organise a retreat on the activities and monitoring of political parties, suggesting that the media should also be part of such retreat as an arm of government expected to hold the government accountable and also monitor its activities.
“The government needs to create an enabling environment for the media to carry out its constitutional responsibilities, and on this note, the NUJ condemns in totality the demolition of a media outfit in Nasarawa state.”
Chairman of the host council, Comrade Adamu Yusuf, in his remarks, stressed the need to build on the gains of 2015 general elections and sustain the “one-man-one vote” legacy.
He urged INEC to further ensure the effectiveness of the card reader system to reduce to the barest minimum, all acts of election rigging and manipulations.
In a related development, a National Executive Council member of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Vice President, Industrial Global Union, Comrade Issa Aremu, said the organised labour “will resist any non-democratic military intervention in the country’s democratic process.”
Speaking at the lecture to commemorate Kwara@ 50, organised by stakeholders in Ilorin, Comrade Aremu said, “Never again should unelected gunmen rule Nigeria.”
“The underdevelopment of most states, in particular Kwara state, in the past 50 years was attributable to frequency of military governors which engendered instability in policy and undermined the state’s development,” he said.
