Obong Of Calabar Charges Journalists On Integrity, Boldness

• Gov Ganduje to grace C-River NUJ Media Week

BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR – The Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi ‘V’ has challenged Nigerian journalists to approach their jobs with integrity, boldness and dedication for the society to accord them the pride of place associated with the profession globally.

According to the Obong, who is also the Paramount ruler of the Efik Kingdom, journalism practitioners in the country must live above board and strive to recreate the glorious past where the public looked up to the media for direction.

This is as he lamented that the focus and trajectory in the practice appears to concentrate on issues that no longer give the public confidence in both the profession and its practitioners.

The highly respected Monarch said skewed tendencies and so-called modern practices should not blurr the lines and make the Media as the fourth estate incapable of upholding its ideals against today’s reality and society lack of responsiveness to established norms.

Speaking when members of the 2022 NUJ Cross River State Council Media Week Central Planning Committee (CPC) paid him homage to seek for royal blessings for the programme, Edidem Okon Abasi said; “as watch dogs of the society, our grundnorms did not accord journalists such enviable status for them to sit on the fence as if the journalism practice is all about bread and butter”.

The Treaty King and Patriarch of the Efik Kingdom, who expressed delight over the invitation as the Royal father of the day at the NUJ Media Summit and Lecture slated for Friday November 25th, urged media men to heed the clarion call as agenda setters because Nigeria needs them more at this crucial stage of its political history.

He said the Week must be deployed to galvanise support and reawaken positive consciousness among citizens that media men are ready to take the responsibility without fear or hindrance, especially at a time when the cry of hunger is so loud in the land and the 2023 elections are fast approaching.

Earlier in his speech, the NUJ State Council Chairman, Comrade Nsa Gill had informed the Obong-in-Council of the plans to host its Media Week and sought royal blessings for the success of the event.

Assuring the traditional ruler that the Media will not shy away from their constitutionally recognized role as the ‘Fourth Estate of the Realm’, Comrade Gill also used the occasion to inform the Obong Council that dignitaries gracing the Week will include the Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdulahi Umar Ganduje among others.