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NUJ President Tasks Journalists On Insurance Scheme
NUJ President Mohammed Garba, has urged working journalists to embrace the ongoing life insurance scheme introduced by the union to safeguard them against professional hazards associated with the profession.
Garba told journalists in Birnin Kebbi last Sunday that the insurance scheme would cover accident, death or any other insurable risk, noting that a large number of journalists had registered with the scheme.
He said that under the scheme, any working journalist who died in active service or got involved in an accident would, within seven days, receive N1.5 million as insurance dividends.
He said that the union was working towards securing 22 per cent increase in the Weigh-in allowance for working journalists to enhance their welfare, adding that efforts were being made to ensure that private media organisations owing their staff salary arrears, settled the debt.
The president attributed the difficulties in the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act to ignorance of the contents of the act on the part of both journalists and civil servants.
He said a sensitisation workshop on the FOI Act had commenced, with a view to educating the general public on the methods and processes of seeking information as provided by the law and urged relevant agencies to cooperate with journalists in this regard.
Garba said that the union, under his leadership, would construct a befitting NUJ national secretariat along with an International Institute of Journalism (IIJ) for the training of journalists and other media practitioners.
According to him, the NUJ recently secured the Certificate of Occupancy of the land earmarked for the national secretariat, adding that the current market value of the land was N750 million.
He said that his administration, had in the last two years, settled inherited salary and rent backlog of about N30 million and that the union’s executive would soon commence full implementation of its manifesto for a virile and vibrant NUJ.
He advised journalists to strictly observe professional ethics, which, he noted, was the hallmark of the profession.
Journalists raised questions, observations and commendations during the interactive session just as the NUJ president was expected to pay courtesy visit on Governor Saidu Dakingari after which he would visit existing federal, state and private media organisations including chapels.
