An editor with Yerwa Express newspaper, Mallam Abdulhamid Gazali Ibrahim, has called more dedicated media presence in the North east, to lead the agenda in the counter-terrorism fight of the federal government.
Gazali Ibrahim made the call at the weekend during the second anniversary of the newspaper held at the Merit House, Maitama, Abuja, stressing that the need to for concerted media presence in the region
informed the setting up of Yerwa Express in 2015.
He noted that, beyond the surface of the report on the activities of Boko Haram and sundry security challenges confronting the people, there was the need to go extra mile in investigating issues of
internally displaced persons, their welfare and other challenges in order to give true meaning to the crisis.
According to Gazali Ibrahim, Yerwa express was established by a team of four young entrepreneurs, who were very concerned about the low coverage of the increasing insurgency in the North East and the zeal
to tell the story to the outside world by the people of the region themselves, which led them to take to the main stream of publishing.
“Three things motivated us to establish Yerwa Express – there was this need to link the North East with rest of world, by informing people of the actual situation in the region by its own people; the mandate to provide opportunity for the growing population of graduates of mass communication being trained by the University of Maiduguri and other youths who have taken to violence to be productively engaged; and the need to create inspiration for young people to drive their own lives without waiting on the government,” he said.
He said in spite of teething challenges, the organisation that started with four persons had grown to about 28 staff with a robot platform across the North East.
He said, the theme of the event, which was “Entrepreneurship, Media and Peace in the North East” was carefully chosen to teach the youths that there is always a way out for them in midst of the festering
challenges in the region.
event feature award presentations to staff and members of the public, who distinguished themselves in the face of daunting challenges in the North East.
