No fewer than 908 journalists from the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, are expected as delegates at the 6th National Conference of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), scheduled for Thursday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
National President of NUJ, Waheed Odusile, made this known, on Tuesday, at a press conference held at the NUJ secretariat, Iwe-Iroyin House, Abeokuta.
The theme of the conference is “Media, Hate Speeches and 2019 General Election in Nigeria: A Democratic Participant or Democratised Press?”
Odusile, flanked by the National Secretary of the union, Liman Shuaib, the chairman of Ogun State Council, Wole Sokunbi and the Chairman of the Credentials Committee, Dahiru Muhammad, said the decision to host the conference in Ogun was adopted at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held in Sokoto.
The NUJ National President, who noted the Union had done the needful to ensure a free, fair and credible elections, explained that “the Conference would discuss issues relating to the State of the Nation, welfare of its members and activities of the union and many other issues and the election of new officers to serve the union at the national level”.
The three-day event, according to Odusile, will start on Wednesday (today) with the arrival of delegates, while Prof. Muyiwa Popoola, of the Department of Mass Communication and Media Studies, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, is expected to deliver the keynote paper.
Elections into various offices will come up on Friday 5th of October.
In his remarks, Muhammed said 33 candidates were cleared by the credentials committee for election into various offices, which will come up on Friday 5th of October.
He added that seven candidates were vying for the post of the National President; three for the office of the National Treasurer and two for the position of Internal Auditor, respectively
He, however, said that the office of the National Secretary and Financial Secretary were unopposed.
