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Ex-Minister urges Nigerians to shun money politics

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Nigeria can get its leadership recruitment right with less emphasis on money politics, says a former Minister of National Planning, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman.

Sulaiman made the remark on Sunday in Ilorin while receiving the leadership of the Kwara Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ).

He said monetary inducement in the nation’s polity had made voters to forfeit the opportunity of interrogating the capacity of aspiring leaders put forward to lead them.

Sulaiman, current Director General, the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), admonished politicians to eschew monetary inducement of voters.

According to him, Nigerians must ensure that the right leaders are elected from the local government to the state level.

He also challenged the media to lead the campaign of educating the citizenry to be wary of repeating past mistakes on the choice of leaders they entrust with power.

“Our society is undergoing serious challenges. We have responsibilities as journalists to educate the people, and shape the narratives, positively.

“Journalists also owe the society a responsibility to do reportage with the fear of God and patriotism,” he said.

Sulaiman called on NUJ to educate its members on the ethics of journalism and marry the fear of God with the profession’s ethics.

According to him, journalists should make it a duty to critically examine events in the country vis-a-vis societal goals and development.

”I want to reiterate the fact that journalists are the eyes and ears of the society. Nigeria’s history is incomplete without the media as the fourth estate of the realm; after the three tiers of government.

“That shows how important the media is in the society. Any government or individual that wants to operate without the media is bound to fail,” he said.

Sulaiman, however, commended the federal and state governments for the various measures implemented to alleviate the suffering of the masses,

He said these efforts demonstrated a commitment to addressing pressing socio-economic challenges and ensuring the well-being of the citizens and were critical in ensuring stability and progress.

Speaking earlier, the state NUJ Chairman, Abdullateef Ahmed, called for a synergy between NILDS and the union in mutually exclusive areas.

Ahmed said this was particularly in the training and retraining of journalists to deliver in line with the prevailing trends in the profession.

The NUJ chairman emphasised the importance of stemming the tide of the preponderance of fake news, including its associated dangers.

Bushrah Yusuf-badmus

NEWSVERGE, published by The Verge Communications is an online community of international news portal and social advocates dedicated to bringing you commentaries, features, news reports from a Nigerian-African perspective. A unique organization, founded in the spirit of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, comprising of ordinary people with an overriding commitment to seeking the truth and publishing it without fear or favour. The Verge Communications is fully registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a corporate organization.

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