Correspondents Chapel Grand Finale Of The 2023 Press Week, 29th November, 2023.

BEING THE OPENING SPEECH OF MALLAM ABDULHAKEEM GARBA, CHAIRMAN, CORRESPONDENTS CHAPEL AT THE GRAND FINALE OF THE 2023 PRESS WEEK, 29TH NOVEMBER 2023.

Every year, chapels and councils of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, hold week long activities marking what we call the Press Week. For us as journalists, the period affords us an opportunity to take stock of how our trade has fared in the year under review. It’s like an Annual General Meeting, AGM, of a corporate body. Only that in our case, the Press week, is an occasion to dispassionately assess our activities in the year under review, placed side by side with our Raison d’etre, ‘our reason for being.’

We review our trade vis-a-vis our agenda setting roles, support for democracy, policy analysis and free speech. We also take time to assess our failings and the critical sectors we need to appeal to for an improvement.

Our Press week is never complete without looking at our welfare. In fact, the introspective aspect of the Press Week package takes the lion share of the week long activities as you would have seen with our outings since Monday.

We have had session in health advisory. This is very necessary. Journalism is a totally absorbing occupation, so much so that practitioners don’t normally pay enough attention to their personal wellbeing.

For this year, we have had health talk sessions, sports engagement as a means to unwind and relieve ourselves of stress and tension associated with the job.

For the grand finale this evening, we have assembled a total package I will leave out as surprise to you, our esteemed invitees.

However, I find it necessary to speak briefly on the chosen theme of this year’s Press Week: The Role of the media in Nigeria’s soft power conundrum.

We already have an esteemed member of our the fourth estate of the realm, seasoned media personality to do justice to the topic in a more elaborate keynote address.

But having said that, it is important that The Media’s Role as Soft Power in Nation Building can never be over emphasized. In the contemporary global landscape, the media has emerged as a powerful tool with the ability to shape public opinion, disseminate information, and influence social, cultural, and political dynamics within nations.

Beyond its traditional role as a source of news and entertainment, the media possesses a unique capacity to exert soft power in the process of nation building.

At this critical point in our history as a nation, formal, structured power institutions like government can do well with the ultimate wielders of soft power like the media/press. hence the purpose of the keynote address we will be listening to.

While recognizing the critical roles we play, we must also remind ourselves that the journalists still remains an endangered species.

Journalists are the ones fighting for the rights of others not to be trampled on. But we sometimes find ourselves at a loss when it is time to fight for the right of the journalist.

We are incessantly harassed with very nebulous laws. There are stories of harassment especially with the police.

The perennial issues of non payment of salaries and benefits still abound. There is need for the national body of NUJ to get it’s acts together on this.

Our event today, however is not about lamenting our woes. We have splendid packages lined up for the evening.

Finally, I want to use this opportunity to thank, most sincerely, the state governor, Mall. Abdulrahaman Abdulrazak for his strong policy initiatives especially at this economically challenging times for Kwarans. We are aware his incentives for state workers many of which are our comrades in the state owned media.

We thank the state council of the NUJ for its immense support for many of the Correspondent Chapel activities.

I must also sincerely thank the Press Week Committee who put these activities together. You have done a yeoman’s job and the entire chapel is grateful to you.

To our invited guests, you are most welcome and we thank you all for your support.The media and Nigeria