‘NUJ Deserves More Respect from Stakeholders’

Next month, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), will converge on Abuja for the 2015 triennial congress of the union. Mr. Abdulwaheed Odusile, a former THISDAY editor, is among the six senior journalists, vying for the position of president. He spoke t

In struggle for freedom and campaign for good governance, the media has played a crucial role to build Nigeria. Beyond the Nigeria project, not a few associations and brands have gotten their equities sustained through the media. Despite these contributions and roles played in building others, not a few people are clamouring for the repositioning of the profession. Abdulwaheed Odusile, the current Managing Editor of The Nation Newspaper, who, at different times, served as the Group Politics Editor and Group News Editor of THISDAY, is one of the few stakeholders, who share this belief. As he sets to slug it out with five others to replace Mohammed Garba in the leadership of the national NUJ, Odusile, from the Lagos State NUJ, is keen at breathing a fresh air into the union. Also aspiring for the same post is the current Deputy President, Mr Rotimi Obamuwagun, from Ondo council, the National Internal Auditor, Mustapha Lamidi, Uzaka Abraham from Bayelsa council and two others. Odusile is presently an Ex-Officio of the union and has been in the profession for about three decades.

In an interview with THISDAY, he commended Mr. Garba for taking the union to an enviable height and pointed out the need to have an experienced hand to take it further. To Odusile, NUJ and its members deserve the same respect accorded the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and their members.

“From the founding fathers of NUJ to the outgoing executive body, under the leadership of Mr. Mohammed Garba, a lot has been done to grow the profession and this must be sustained. My vision for the NUJ is to have a union that will be run by professional journalists; because we want to be like other professional bodies that are well respected by Nigerians and government at different levels. Example of such bodies are: NBA, NMA, among others. For instance, the least qualification required to head NBA today is that you must be a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). And no matter the number of years you serve as a law clerk, you will never be qualified as a Barrister not until you acquire the necessary qualifications. So, we want NUJ to be a union of professionals with integrity that will earn respect of the larger society. We want to ensure that all our members are properly certified. While we want to welcome everybody that wants to be a journalist, we also want to ensure that there are checks and balances that will authenticate high level of professionalism in the media industry,” he said.

If NUJ can achieve this, Odusile believes the union would have been able to reduce the incidence of quackery and fake in the profession. To him, if one is trained in certain things, it simply means such a person has gotten a set of skills that someone who does not undergo such training does not have. This, he said by the time it is put into practice, the outcome will be excellence.

Among other means of achieving this ambition, the senior journalist said he is already working out the possibility of proposing a bill to the National Assembly that would enable the house to pass a law that would create proper registration process for Nigerian Journalists and compel youths willing to pursue journalism career to attend institute for Nigerian Journalists for robust skills acquisition.

“The law will, for instance, suggest that, if you are a holder of Mass Communication certificate, you will need to go for two or three months training, and for the non Mass Communication certificate holders, they will need to attend it for six months or one year. These are the details that would be contained in the bill that we will propose to the national assembly when we are given the mandate to run the affair of the national NUJ.”

To protect the interest of members, the presidential hopeful also emphasised his determination to work with other stakeholders to set standards for owners of newspaper and broadcasting orgnisations and others who are interested in investing in the industry.

“The bill will also take care of our members in terms of remuneration; we want to insist that before one starts as media owner, at least, the investor must have enough money. We don’t want traders to come and say they will own media business, because it is a serious business. Therefore, we want people who want to run the business to be sufficiently interested in journalism and to know that people who will work for them must be taken care of. So in our bill to national assembly, before one becomes a publisher, he or she must have sufficient fund to pay salaries of workers for at least one or two years,”

Having been around and active both as a professional and unionist for about 30 years, Odusile seems to have a good grasp of the various challenges facing the industry. He expressed his concern over lack of trust and confidence in the leadership of NUJ by other major stakeholders in the industry. According to him, some stakeholders still look down on the NUJ as just the union of the boys, just because in the past, many journalists and their leaders have behaved in a way that do not earn respect for the profession.

“We are not happy that NUJ is not getting its right of place in Nigeria despite what journalism has contributed into the polity, we intend to change that. For instance, from my background, I have gone through all the ranks of journalism and that must have earned me respect from my colleagues and this will rub off on NUJ.”

Odusile, who is the only member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors among the contestants, started his journalism career about three decades ago with the Broadcasting Station of Oyo State, then known as the Television Service of Oyo State. He later left Ibadan to join the late Bashorun MKO Abiola’s Concord Press of Nigeria in Lagos. He grew through the ranks to the level of an assistant/deputy editor of the Sunday Concord. At Concord, he also served as the Secretary of the Concord chapel, while the current Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Mr. Babafeme Ojudu, served as chairman of the chapel.

He left Concord for THISDAY Newspapers, and at various times served as the paper’s News Editor, Group Political Editor and Group Foreign Editor. He had also worked with The Sun newspaper and the rested National Life, where he held various offices, including a title editorship. He is currently the Managing Editor of The Nation and Ex-Officio of the national NUJ.