(L-R) Sen. Yakubu Oseni and Chairman of Union in Kogi, Alhaji Mimohjimoh Adeiza at the occasion.
By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
The Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, kogi state Council on Tuesday emerged as the first union to have a well equipped Digital Economy Centre in Kogi State.
The Correspondent of The Reporters reports that the historic event was facilitated by the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial district, Senator Yukubu Oseni,who also is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT)/ Cyber Security.
The Senator testing one of the computers after inaugurating the centre.
In his speech at the NUJ Press Centre, Lokoja,the Chairman of the Council, Alhaji Mimohjimoh Adeiza, thanked the Senator for facilitating such an important centre for the union.
The NUJ Chairnman said”We are very grateful to you sir.”
Adeiza expressed optimism that the centre would enable Journalists improve their knowledge,” more on digital skills required for the practice of modern Journalism in a world that is digital knowledge-oriented.”
He added: “As we put the centre to use, it will save us the time and money that we would have used to do some of our work in other centres outside.
“This new development comes with its own dignity as we now have a Digital Economy Centre that we can call our own. The special gift from our Senator is something that we are proud of and for which we shall ever remain grateful to our humble, easygoing and generous national lawmaker.
“The Senator representing the Central Senatorial District of the state is not a Journalist.
“Senator Oseni is an Accountant by profession. If he had been a media person before he became a Senator, we would have said he is extending this gesture to us because of his common professional source with us.
“We should also note that the Senator is not on the ballot for 2023 election. He is not contesting election back into the Senate. Yet, he has chosen to help the Union with this befitting Digital Economy Centre.
“He is a good man. He is doing what he knows how to do best. Oseni is cut out for good things.
“He knew he had sought for the vote of the electorate in order for him to have the opportunity to deliver the dividends of democracy to them. That is exactly what he has done with this special donation to us.
“He is not the kind of Senator who will drink the palm wine served him by the people and break the palm wine keg. He is a greatful man.
“Do we have any professional link with our Senator and friend? No! Yet Mr. Oseni Yakubu has found us worthy of the honey from his generosity pot.
“Don’t we have many of our colleagues who contested and won elections, using the opportunity provided to them by virtue of their Journalism profession? We have and many of them. But unlike Senator Yakubu, our own colleagues will drink the palm wine given to them by NUJ and break the keg.
“They used this Union to get several advantages. If you do a check on them today, they have in no way helped their colleagues or the Union.
“What they do is to bite the finger that fed them. It has come to our knowledge that these set of bad and former Journalists are now asking one position or the other in the 2023 elections.
“I can only ask our members and the good people of Kogi State to shine their eyes and never allow themselves to be used and dumped by this selfish former journalist whose stock in trade is to break the ladder through which he got to the apex of the tree, forgetting that he would still come down from the slippery and thorny tree?
Shortly before he inaugurated the centre, equipped with modern computer and internet services, Senator Oseni,in his speech described journalists” as credible mirrors of our society’.
He told members of the fourth estate of the realm that:” I have tremendous respect for the journalists because they’re credible mirrors through which we view other parts of the world.
“As a privileged chairman of Senate Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT)/ Cyber Security, I viewed it as a moral obligation to provide this facility to you with the hope that it will optimise your task of news dissemination to Kogi State and beyond”.
The Senator added that he had moral obligation to discharge his duties as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, stressing that Kogi State journalists could not afford to lag in the present digital transformation across all field of endeavors.
The Senator, who commiserated with members of the union in the state,for the demise of Leadership Newspaper correspondent, Elder Sam Egwu, enjoined them to discharge their professional calling with absolute fear of God.
