As the 2023 general elections draw close, the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union Journalists (NUJ) wants politicians and candidates participating in the elections to commit to peaceful conduct and avert the bloodletting that greeted previous polls in the state.
It was to this end that the chapel, whose membership is drawn from correspondents of national print and electronic media organizations based outside Rivers State, its Correspondents’ Week activities held between Monday January 23rd and Sunday January 29th, 2022 in Port Harcourt.
Chairman of the chapel, Comrade Amaechi Okonkwo, said at the opening that politicians and political parties should not in their course of pursuing their electoral goals endanger the lives and livelihood of the people and stability of the nation.
“They should not in pursuit of their own interests disrupt our own lives by making the environment unconducive for us to continue with our own endeavours. We need to tell them that they don’t need to kill us before they get our votes to rule us.
“Rewind to 2019 when we last held general elections here and you will understand the economic and social disruptions; the loss of lives and property and the nightmares of militarization of the state, which are still fresh in our hearts. This is the reason we insisted on joining the discussion to reinforce not just the discussion on but demand for peaceful general elections in Rivers State,” Okonkwo said.
The Chairman of the opening, Dr. Jossy Nkwocha, who is also the Head of the Corporate Communications of Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited, said the theme of the Week was very germane to the season Nigeria was getting into but he warned journalists to be wary of carrying fake news. The theme was Media Vigilance Ahead of Peaceful 2023 Election in Rivers State.
Dr. Nkwocha urged journalists to take steps to ensure that the stories they would report, forward or use were true and verifiable. This he said they can do so by confirming stories, maintaining neutrality, checking out for libel and slander, avoiding ethnic or religious profiling and stories that promote hate and hasty generalizations.
“Remember to be patriotic and know that Nigeria is the only country we have. You can set Nigeria and Rivers State ablaze without knowing it. Remember that the pen is mighty and can build or destroy,” he added.
Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Chief Chris Finebone, who was the Special Guest, said anniversaries such as the Correspondents’ Week should provide opportunities for stocktaking, reflections and planning ahead.
“You look at what has happened; what you are doing; how can I do it better? How can I be back on track? All in search of perfection, whether we will get to perfection doesn’t really matter,” he said.
Turning to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the commissioner said the communication backbone on which INEC was relying to promise a free and credible election was still suspect.
“I am afraid when it will be high noon for this election; I just pray that the communication people will provide you the robust backbone with which you will deliver. I am praying that the meet you at the point f your promise. If it fails; too bad for everybody. If it works, glory be to God,” he said.
He urged journalists to develop passion for their job and move on to protect their profession. “Every sector is under siege. But attention comes to the journalist more because he is the one in the eye of the storm; he is the one that is supposed to serve as an ombudsman, the person watching every other sector. So whatever providence has thrust upon you is a little bit more than it has thrust upon others. And so a lot more is required of you,” he said.
He said the main product of journalism is knowledge dissemination. “And therefore would you come from a point of lack of knowledge? No! You are supposed to be the master of everything, virtually everything,” he said, noting that it could be very disappointing when a man who deals with commodity of knowledge comes from a deficient position. “It weighs down on him and makes people to take advantage of him. But if you are an authority on the matter you are dealing with, which is spreading knowledge, nobody will make a mess of you,” Finebone added.
In his address, the Head, Voter Education Department of the INEC in Rivers State, Chief Mark Usulo, said the commission was working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission to check vote buying in the coming elections. He said youths across the wards had been sensitized on how to report people involved in vote buying.
Usulo, who represented the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Rivers State, Mr. Johnson Sinikiem, said with the new Electoral Act, anyone found with another person’s permanent voter’s card could go to jail. “Security agents have been briefed to arrest people in possession of PVCs not theirs,” Usulo said.
But he called on the media to give accurate reportage of the activities of INEC during the period of the election, and praised journalists for adequately covering programmes of the commission in the past.
Two days later members of the chapel visited Priesthood Orphanage at Elelenwo where the founder, Mrs. Blessing Echenwo, urged government to reconsider its policy that orphanages should evict their grown up inmates.
She said in response to the government policy, she had set up a special hostel to accommodate the grownup inmates who she said could not be let out into the streets with foster care.
She urged government to help provide the grownup boys with quarters until such a time that they could begin to cater for themselves. “The girls fare better because they can easily marry but the boys are greatly disadvantaged. They have nowhere to go. We bring them up with the fear of God. But if we throw them into the streets, they would join bad gangs,” Mrs. Echenwo said.
Priesthood Orphanage, established 14 years ago has 100 inmates.
On Day Three of the Week, which served as the dinner, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Pastor Tonye Cole, challenged the media to make political office holders accountable to the people.
Cole who was represented by his spokesperson, Sogbeye Eli, raised the alarm that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party was doing everything to stifle opposition in the state. He said, “The Constitution says there should be a multiparty democracy. But some politicians say Rivers State is a one-party state and they are doing everything possible to stifle the voice of opposition,” he said.
The immediate-past Commissioner for Information and Communications, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, congratulated the leadership and membership of the chapel and thanked them for a good coverage of the activities of the state government. A minute’s silence was observed in memory of two of the chapel’s members, Joe Ezuma and Obed Mpiegbunam that died in the last one year.
Activities of the chapel were rounded off with a church service on Sunday at Eleutheria Church, Elimgbu, where the Chief Worker, Pastor Kingsley Nwachukwu, called on the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Government to save the masses a lot of suffering that may come with the issuance of new currency notes and the reinforcement of cashless economy by moving into the markets, worship places and other public places to train people on how to operate the e-wallet system and do online payments.
He also urged the CBN and government to mop up the old currency notes from the markets and replace them with the new currency notes. “This will help the common man survive what is going on,” Pastor Nwachukwu said.
