President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, has expressed his readiness to collaborate with the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) on issues of the remuneration of journalists in Nigeria.
Ajaero noted that journalists are poorly paid and owed for many months by their employers, causing their living conditions and retirement age to be undesirable.
He stated that the living condition of most journalists is characterised by hardship and suffering, even as he said that journalists are among the groups that suffer the most indecent job conditions in Nigeria.
While he expressed displeasure that NUJ, an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress has stepped backward for no good reason in the affairs of NLC against what it was in the early days of his journalism career, Ajaero said he would meet with leaders of the journalists union to discuss extensively on measures to change the working and living condition of media practitioners in the country.
“The NUJ is going backwards, they are slacking in the affairs of NLC and I am not afraid of saying this. They have allowed the Guild of Editors to be at the forefront.
“The Guild are the managers and they cannot protect the interest of reporters. I don’t mean to open a debate between journalists being professionals or employees. If you are claiming to be professionals, you are undermining yourselves because 90 percent of your members earn a living through their employers.
“As professionals, do you have your chambers? Do you have your clinics? So if we leave the employee aspect of our association and move into the professional aspects, then there is a problem.
“If we say we are professionals yet our salaries are being paid or determined by one employer somewhere, what kind of professionals are we? You said you are professionals yet you are suffering in silence and your salaries are not being paid.
“The media are among the people that are poorly remunerated in Nigeria and I want to collaborate with the NUJ for us to set the machinery in motion, especially on the welfare of journalists, even to the issue of insurance. Do you know what happens to journalists on a daily basis?
“I want to work with the NUJ to know those organisations that are owing journalists. Don’t tell me you are a professional and they are owing you. And you tell NLC not to come. Don’t expect the Guild of Editors to do it for you. They cannot because they are editors and managers and cannot agitate for your welfare.
“We are not trying to incite anybody but what is right must be done. So we must face the truth. Are we actually professionals? If I say I am not working for organisation A today, can I actually stand on my own? And how many of us can stand on their own and continue to exist? So we must decide whether we are employees or professionals. Until we address some of these issues, we may be more Catholic than the Pope.
“How can journalists be working for the welfare of others and be suffering? Some of our colleagues who have left service, we are trying to find out how they are fairing. We will not be happy at all because the conditions of most of them are terrible”.
He therefore stressed the need for partnership for the overall well-being of journalists.