The leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ), Edo State Council, says, the next three years would present another opportunity for those, who have not obtained their requisite qualifications for the profession to do so or face likely blackout.
It says, the new leadership will no longer tolerate or accommodate quackery or intruders’ participation in its activities in the state.
Comrade Festus Alenkhe, the newly elected Chairman of the State Council, who was speaking at the State Secretariat, days after his swearing in ceremony, voiced his concerns over the influx of unprofessional members within the ranks who neither have the professional background nor been active over the years as practitioners in the state.
The State NUJ chairman, lamented the various methods implored by what, he described, as overzealous attitudes of some Chapels’ leaders who he claimed, were coerced by vote seekers to peddle their lists, during electioneering campaign exercise to enable them win more votes.
Comrade Alenkhe believes that a compendium of members that will be put together by his team will clearly reveal those who are active as well as professionals, in no distance time.
While reassuring his administration’s commitment to provide enabling environment for practitioners in the state, he admonished, those yet to ratify their professional qualification to do so by exploring the relevant windows in the next academic calendar of the Union owned International Institute of Journalism (IIJ) to obtain at least a diploma or face total expulsion from the Union’s operations.
He averred that, the era of sneaking through the backdoor without requisite qualification for the profession is over.
He hailed those who believed in his ability to effect the needed change, just as he maintained that he is extending an olive branch to his opponent in the polls and his followers to join the train in moving the Union forward.
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