By Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo:
Four days after its 2022 Media Summit, the Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ), Abia State Council has continued to brood over the non-completion of the NUJ Press Centre almost a decade after the project was started.
Anxious journalists had expected Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to address the issue squarely at the 2022 Media Summit in which he was listed as the grand patron of Abia NUJ and special guest of honour at the occasion.
But to the disappointment of Abia journalists, Ikpeazu not only failed to honour the media men but did not send even a low ranking government official to represent him at the event.
Apparently taking a cue from the state chief executive, other top government officials equally shunned the invitation from journalists. They included the Deputy Governor, Ude Oko Chukwu, Speaker of Abia House of Assembly, Rt Hon Chinedum Orji, Chief Judge of the State, Justice Onuoha Ogwe and Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chris Ezem.
Not left out in the mass boycott were Commissioner for Information, Eze Chikamnayo; Commissioner for Strategic Communication and Documentation, Ugochukwu Emezue; Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Onyebuchi Ememanka and other media aides to the governor.
“Despite the pretences, Ikpeazu and those in his government have further accentuated their disdain for professional journalists in Abia,” said a journalist in utter exasperation.
Abia is the only state in Nigeria that has no Press Centre, 31 years after its creation even though such structure is considered among the defining facilities of a state capital.
In his address at the Media Summit the Chairman of Abia NUJ, Victor Ndukwe lamented the absence of a befitting Press Centre for Abia journalists, who have over the years improvised a rented apartment located at a very noisy part of Umuahia, the capital city.
He said that members of Abia NUJ “are hoping and praying for the fulfilment” of Ikpeazu’s pledge to complete the press centre project he inherited from his predecessor, Senator Theodore Orji.
“Many states, today, even have two of such facilities to their credit,” he said, adding that “since government alone cannot do it all, we still look up to good-spirited individuals who can also offer to provide us with a Press Centre.”
“Abia journalists have generally held the Commissioner for Information, Eze Chikamnayo responsible for the stagnation of the press centre project following his alleged fronting of a surrogate “to corner the contract.”
Though he has denied the accusation, the commissioner has not helped matters as he has resisted every attempt to change the non-performing contractor in order to give the project traction.
To the chagrin of Abia NUJ leadership and members, every fund so far released by government had gone down the drain with little or nothing to show for it.
