Picking of nomination kicks off, as NUJ elects new leadership in May

ABUJA – ASPIRANTS vying for the presidency of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) have been trooping to the union offices national wide to indicate interest by picking nomination form, Vanguard has learnt.By 24 – 26 May this year, the union will be holding its national delegate congress in Abuja to elect a new leadership that will steer the affairs of the union for the next three years.So far, the Chairman of the NUJ Electoral Committee, Mr Gbenga Onayiga told Vanguard that about four aspirants had indicated interest to contest for the union presidential position.They are: The Managing Editor, the Nation Newspaper, Mr Abdulwaheed Odusile from Lagos Council, the current Deputy President, Mr Rotimi Obamuwagun, the National Internal Auditor, Mustapha Lamidi and Uzaka Abraham from Bayelsa council.Odusile, who is presently an Ex-Officio of the union had been in the profession for more than three decade, and he was promising to provide qualitative leadership, if elected as the president of the noble profession.Speaking on Thursday evening in Abuja, while picking his nomination form, Alhaji Waheed Odusile vowed to build on the foundation being laid by the current leadership of the union.He also promised to fight quacks who had infiltrated the pen pushing profession.Odusile further said that his aim was to ensure that journalists in the country were professionally qualified in terms of training and certification, saying the quacks had given the profession a bad name.According to him, the union needs to be mindful of the leaders that are elected to lead it, because the organisation is in need of a better leadership.“We need a thorough breed professional to lead our union.“We should be mindful of the quality of leaders that we put at the helm in NUJ, because in the past we havehad instances where our leaders in the NUJ had not lived up to expectation, now that we have the opportunity, we should not fall below the standard expected of us and to be able to go higher, we must lookfor a better leadership to take the union higher.“NUJ is a big organisation that has given birth to a lot of bodies. Those other bodies probably have learnt from our mistakes and learnt to do things better but it doesn’t mean that NUJ is worthless, we are the father or mother of those organisations, we will do better.”In his remarks, Onayiga said the picking and submission of the form still open till May 8, adding that the committee still open to any body willing to contest for the election.He appealed to all aspirants to ensure a clean contest that devoids of calling of names and use of abusive languages, promising to provide a level playing ground for all.“We need to de-monetise the process. We (aspirants) should go about the exercise in a very responsible way to serve as example to other unions we have criticized,” he said.