By; MOHAMMED KAWU, Bauchi
Media owners or proprietors in the country have been tasked to seriously look at the problems and challenges of their workers, especially those working at outside stations, sometimes at their own risk.
Governor Bala Mohammed who made the appeal on Saturday, said he was perturbed by the conditions under which media practitioners operate, working in the rains and in the sun, trying to make the society better by exposing bad governance, exposing limitations and inadequacies, sometimes at their own costs.
The governor who was speaking while presenting two vehicles to members of the Correspondents’ Chapel and Government House Press Crew, said, “I’m not flattering the media but they were doing so much, they have remains one of the best professionals in terms of what they are doing, and they were at par with their global counterparts”
He noted that media practitioners cannot financial be independent if they were not certain considerations such payments of remunerations or salaries by their employers, saying “They must be encouraged to work in a manner to create conducive environment for them to work, and of course to be above board”.
Mohammed said, “I’m using this opportunity to call on media owners to please look at the problems and challenges of those workers that are at outside stations, making the profession to be noble so that they can have salaries, wages and allowances, transportation and other welfare issues”.
The Governor described the media people as the most dehumanized people in Nigeria, who have been suffering in silence despite that they put up a mirror for the society to see itself, expressing worrisome that some of the most viable media houses in the country are not even paying salaries to their workers.
Bala recalled that he sat down with media owners and the guild of editors when was he the FCT Minister where vital issues pertaining to practitioners were discussed at length, saying giving the vehicles to journalists shows that journalism and media men have dignity in the society. saying the best thing he can do is to present the vehicles to the media practitioners in Bauchi.
The governor therefore stressed the need for media practitioners to be given due respect in terms of their positive contributions to the society, and pledged to renovate the Bauchi NUJ Secretariat before the expiration of his present tenure, stressing, “I have done it in Abuja and I would do it in Bauchi”.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mukhtar Mohammed Gidado has earlier appreciated the good working relationship between the state government and media practitioners in the state, and expressed confidence that the tempo would be maintain for the betterment of the larger society.
