By Dada Ahmed.
For years to come, Saturday, the 4th of February,2023, will remain indelible in the minds of working Journalists in Kogi State for many reasons. In the same vein, critical stakeholders in the current administration,under the leadership of the governor, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, say they will also not forget the day in a hurry.
To others,the event serves as an eloquent reminder of the importance of seamless relationship between the media practitioners and the government.
This belief finds relevance in the fact both governnent and Journalists need to forge symbiotic relationship in the course of serving the people in their respective statutory responsibilities to the society and the people.
To an average Journalist practising in the state, the day marked the reality of a seamless relationship between members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists,NUJ and the current administration in the state, an ambition they nursed for seven years.
Before the historic tour of governnent projects, journalists in the state had raised eyebrow over what they described as not having unfettered access to covering governnent activities.
According to them, the gap between them and the governnent contributed in no small measure to the public misconstrue of the administration of Alhaji Yahaha Bello’s governnent genuine intention to improve the social and economic wellbeing of the people and for better understanding and appreciation by the people.
However, there came a light at the end of dark tunnel towards the end of 2022 when a truce was reached between the two parties,a development that paved way for a new relationship manifesting in improved reportage of the state government activities by members of the fourth estate of the realm.
To put the broker peace process into proper perspective, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ in the, Alhaji Mimohjimoh Adeiza, with the consent of the state government, led his enthusiastic members on a seven-hour, eventful tour of projects executed by the Bello-led governnent.
The first leg of the energy-sapping tour took the Journalists to Kogi West and Kogi Central Senatorial districts of the state.
The tour which received the blessing of two Commissioners; Mr Wemi Jones of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and his counterpart in charge of Ministry of Information and Communications, Mr Kingsley Fanwo was an exercise worth its salt as it revealed a lot about the state government impact in social and economic life of the people of the state.
The tour kicked-off from Muhammadu Buhari Square, then to GYB Model Science Secondary school, Adankolo quarters and zoomed to the newly inaugurated flyover bridge,all in Lokoja, the capital.
At the Muhammadu Buhari Square, the Journalists were welcomed to a magnificent recreational outfit equipped with modern facilities, capable of accommodating many social social and economic events and boost social cohesion and generate revenue for the state government.
Welcoming Journalists to the flyover bridge, the first of its its kind in the 32year-old Kogi State, Fanwo said the state government constructed the novel facility at a cost below N5 billion instead of the conservative N20 billion estimate it inherited from the previous administration.
He attributed the successful completion of the project to the prudent management of the financial resources of the people by the state government
The Commissioner expressed delight that the facility had gone along way to ease traffic challenges that faced the people at the Ganaja junction in the past.
At the GYB Model Science Secondary school, Adankolo in Lokoja,a project of Bello governnent, Wemi Jones presented to Journalists, a well equipped secondary school by all standard. The school has a three hundred capacity hall, equipped with computers and other modern science and technological tools to aid student’s learning of science subjects.
According to him, the state government established the school to prepare science incline students for admission into the newly established state-owned Confluence University of Science and Technology CUSTECH in Asara.
The Educatuon Commissioner also told the Journalists that the school contained 18 classrooms and capable of admitting over 1,000 students yearly.
He said the state government was in the course of replicating such model school in the three Senatorial districts of the state as well as other educational programmes to boost education in the state.
Not done with the tour, all road led to CUSTECH,Osara, where the Journalists listened attentively as the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Salawu Sadiku, reeled out the efforts of his administration,so far, in taking three-year-old institution to fame in no distant future.
He disclosed that CUSTECH commenced operation in 2021, adding that the National Universities Commission,NUC, had approved all the courses presented to it by the Senate of the institution, pointing out that massive construction of the various faculties of the university had also commenced with funds from Tetfund and the state government.
Prof. Sadiku, who took Journalists round the construction works going on in the university,said the basic aim of the university was the production of science and technological based manpower.
He expressed optimism that such manpower would boost the workforce that would work in Ajaokuta Steel project when it eventually icommences operation in future.
According to him, some of the products of institution will also explore the abundant and reach solid mineral resources of the state and put them into use for its development among other advantages.
The CUSTECH boss said the coming into existence of the institution had also,to a large degree, solved the challenges facing indigenes of the state who often experience difficulty in securing admission in other universities in the country.
Perhaps, the most interesting part of the tour is the visit to the much talked about Reference hospital,Okene.
The hospital, inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari,is reputed to boast of the latest scientific and medical equipment some of which cannot be obtained in other hospitals in the country,according to the state Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health,Dr. Olusegun Barnabas.
The Director, who conducted Journalists round the facilities at the hospital said the health has the advanced level of MRI, six dialysis machines, Citi scan and other up-to-date and sophisticated medical equipment, promised that the hospital that can handle any disease in the world and perhaps, better than any other hospital in Nigeria.
He assured the people of the state that with the calibre of such hospital they should forget going abroad for to seek health in the name of medical tourism which usually draini the nation’s foreign exchange.
Dr. Barnabas added that the hospital has gas plant where it produces adequate oxygen for local use and for sale to other hospitals in the country to save life of patients and generate revenue for the state government.
According to Dr. Barnabas, the hospital can boast of hyperbaric oxygen treatment unit, the first of its kind in the history of hospital management in the country.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-established treatment for decompression sickness, a potential risk of scuba diving. Other conditions treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy include: Serious infections, according to mayoclinic.org.
Commenting on the hospital in an interview with Journalists at the end of the tour, Fanwo described the hospital as a big blessing,not only to kogites but also Nigerians, adding that the health facility.
According to him, the establishment of the hospital is the fulfilment of one of the five thematic programmes of the governor’s campaign promises to the people of the state.
He described the Yahaha Bello-led administration as one governnent that executed “massive projects” more than the previous administrations in the state.
Adding voice,the number one Journalist in Kogi, Alhaji Mimohjimoh Adeiza, commended Governor Bello for the establishment of the hospital and other people-oriented projects aimed at boosting the social and economic wellbeing of the people.
He said Journalists embarked on the tour to be able to see the efforts of the state government in making meaningful impact in the life of the people, as it were, and to be able to speak with adequate knowledge of insight about the programmes of the current administration in the state in the forthcoming symposium by their union.
By and large, the tour, besides its major objective, also serves as a rally point for media practitioners in the state to share ideas and thoughts on the way forward way and enhance their statutory responsibility to the public as critical stakeholders in information management and dissemination.
The atmosphere of conviviality that defined interaction between the Journalists and the two Commissioners, during the tour, many inquisitive minds believe,is a reflection of a new dawn of cordial relationship between the Press and the Executive in the realm of governnent.
The other two being the Judiciary and the Legislature all of which must in harmony to ensure good governance.
At the end of the tour when all the Journalists that took part in the exercise disembarked at the NUJ Press Centre, Lokoja, 6:30 p.m, they all agreed that their effort for the day was not in vain as they gained insight into government efforts to better the lots of the citizens.
What more, they acknowledged the fact that, they came back from the tour, armed with enough stories to serve members of the public who are eager to know happenings in the state.
To government officials on the tour, the exercise signals the new dawn of better understanding of the role of Journalists in the state in the discharge of their duty and perhaps, a radical departure from the past while the Journalists, on the other
hand, believe that they must also reciprocate the gesture of government in organising the tour,through increased and strict adherence to the ethnics of their profession and enhance productivity, for the overall good of the state and its citizens.
Dada Ahmed publishes The Reporters.
