The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has ratified the election of Mr Mustapha Isah as the new President of the body and immediately sworn in. The ratification came up at the 15th All Nigeria Editors’ Conference (ANEC 2019) in Sokoto on Friday.
Isah succeeds Mrs Funke Egbemode who resigned as the President of the NGE following her appointment as the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation in Osun. In his acceptance speech, Isah thanked members for the confidence reposed in him.
“I am not the best. Anyone of us is capable of being the president. I am ready to listen to everyone. I will not fail you; I will listen to all. I will make the Guild an indivisible entity. I will not trade with the name of the Guild and I shall be just to everyone,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Prof. Umar Pate, Dean, Postgraduate School, Bayero University, Kano, has urged the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) to constitute a team to do a study of how the media can survive in future. Pate, a Professor of Media and Society, made the appeal during a discussion on “Solution Roundtable: A Distressed Media; The Way Out’’ at the 15th All Nigeria Editors’ Conference (ANEC 2019) in Sokoto on Friday.
He noted that the media was facing difficult times as it had to be on air 24 hours; advertising revenue was dropping; the need for more money to invest in technology and consumers of media products mostly relying on online reports.
Pate expressed concern over how the media could invest in new technologies as people no longer depend on newspapers and other forms of conventional media.
“How do we invest into the future to ensure that we carry the young ones along as part of the global movement and to be relevant in the present Nigeria’s democratic movement ’’ he asked?
The Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, The Sun Publishing Ltd, Mr Onuoha Ukeh, called for a re-engineering of the newsroom. Ukeh suggested that media houses must collaborate by printing for each other, instead of doing it individually in order to cut costs. He also advised that for instance, a truck could be used to distribute the newspapers.
In his contribution, the Executive Director, News, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Ahaziah Suleiman, said funding was a major problem affecting the media. Suleiman called for training and retraining of journalists, saying that practioners should put their case on the front burner by speaking for themselves, not minding whether public or private sector. Mr Isaac Ighure, a former Editor-in-Chief, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the NGE should invest more to be self-dependent. He suggested that journalists should be well remunerated and regularly.