NUJ 2024 Delegates Conference: Members Lament Imo State As Proposed Venue

…delegates may boycott conference

Some of the leaders, members, and elders of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) across Nigeria have rejected the proposed venue for this year’s national delegates conference.

According to our source at the national secretariat in Abuja, who preferred anonymity, a proposal letter requesting one hundred and fifty million naira (150 million) has been sent to the Government of Imo State for hosting the delegates conference in Owerri.

In view of this development, members have started mobilizing for its rejection across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria ahead of the NUJ NEC meeting in Ibadan on Friday.

The source stated that the delegates conference may be boycotted due to insecurity in the region, as was the case three years ago in Umuahia, Abia State, where the president took the delegates conference for his reelection in 2021.

The source also added that it is not only the South East zone that constitutes the NUJ; there are other zones that can conveniently host the delegates conference and are safer in terms of security.

It stressed that the South East zone cannot host the NUJ delegates conference back-to-back in 2021 and 2024. According to the law of nature, there should be justice, equity, and fairness.

According to our source from Abuja, the intention of the NUJ leadership is that people will boycott the election if it is held in the South East zone, citing insecurity, so that his proteges can win the elections without any contest, as happened three years ago when northerners boycotted the elections in Umuahia, Abia State.

The source emphasized that the South East zone has been volatile in terms of security since 2010, when four journalists from Lagos were kidnapped on the Aba-Umuahia road on their way from a NEC meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Additionally, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, former special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, was brutally murdered in Imo State by unknown gunmen. Just three weeks ago, nine soldiers were killed in Imo State, and the husband of the late Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Dora Akunyili, was gruesomely assassinated by unknown people, along with other notable Nigerians. Terrorist groups like IPOB, ESN, and ISWAP have been active in the region while governments at all levels find it difficult to control them. Therefore, security in the South East is so tense that it would be unwise to move journalists to the South East during this trying period.

The source, therefore, charged all delegates to the NEC meeting to reject such a proposal if put forward during the deliberations and to consider other zones or preferably Abuja, which is central to all states in the federation. All state councils can cater to their delegates in terms of transportation, accommodation, and feeding if the national secretariat of the NUJ fails to sponsor its delegates conference.