The Chairman, Oyo state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Alhaji Ademola Babalola, Friday, hinted that the union was working towards securing soft loans for its members for businesses of their choice.
The council chairman dropped this hint in a May Day message stating, “At Oyo NUJ level, we are talking to some of our leaders and there is hope in the horizon for some of us to get CBN soft loans to do business of our choice, to augment for the miserable salaries of yore and till date.
“Frankly speaking, there is no doubt that it is not yet uhuru for all of us because what we jointly expected, that is the living wage, has not been fully materialised yet. We need to still thank God for the little we have.
“A year ago, we clamoured for the implementation of new minimum wage and same has been approved for Nigerian workers. While colleagues in govt-owned media establishments are savouring the little increase in their monthly pay, many of us in the private establishments continue to groan in silence.”
Alhaji Babalola lamented the fact that the meagre salary of some journalists meagre have either been slashed by at least 50 per cent since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic about two months ago or have not been paid at all for several months by their employers.
Speaking further he said: “What this means is that we need to think outside the box to venture into other areas for survival, possibly agriculture.”
