General Secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mrs. Victoria Ibanga, has described training as the best tool with which journalists in the country can develop themselves and help the profession to grow.
Journalists, she therefore urged, should seize every opportunity to get trained in order to improve their standing in the profession.
Ibanga made the remark just as the Managing Editor of The Next Edition, Mr. Ibanga Isine, called for restrain in the way journalism is practised in order to achieve the best.
The two top journalists spoke at the opening of a training programme organised by Next Edition newspaper in conjunction with the Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists.
The theme of the workshop is: “Attaining high impact, socially responsible and rewarding journalism practice in Akwa Ibopm State.”
Decrying inadequate training programmes and poor remuneration for journalists in the country, Ibanga said acquiring the needed tool would enable them make meaningful impact in the society through their profession.
“There are gains and pains in this profession, there is no adequate training, inadequate remuneration and above all, there is high exposure to risks,” she said.
In his remark, Isine who warned that there should be caution in the way the profession is practised in recent time also stressed the need for journalists to avail themselves of the great opportunities that abound.
According to him, grants and other great opportunities were available but only needed to be tapped.
He spoke about The Next Edition and its plans for the future of the profession.
According to him, the newspaper “is going to be an emerging force in the country.”
Also speaking at the occasion, the Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Moses Ekpo, called for an urgent revival of the vibrancy that characterised journalism of old.
Ekpo who spoke while declaring the workshop open emphasized the need for journalists to be truthful, accurate, independent, fair, objective and accountable.
The qualities, according to him, were the core ethical values upon which the practice was built.
He said unfortunately, the core values had been neglected by most journalists of today.
“A cursory appraisal of our contemporary practice will reveal that all these time-honoured traditions had long been truncated by a seeming implosion of self-contradictions.
“That the corporate health of our profession has been going through quite a debilitating process is no more news. What has perhaps remained doubtful up to this moment is how we can navigate through the unsavoury circumstances that culminated in our present faux pas,” he said.
The deputy governor, who was represented by his press secretary, Ekikere Umoh, expressed the hope that with the kind of resource persons lined up for the workshop, a new reawakening in the profession was already underway.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of the Akwa Ibom State Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC), Pastor Aniete Ukpe, said journalism profession remained a beautiful one anywhere, anytime.
He called on journalists in the state to be committed to the ideals of the profession.
The state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Patrick Alkbert , commended The Next Edition for collaborating with the state council to organise the workshop for journalists.
He called for greater collaboration with other organisations to join hands with the union in its determination to constantly update and train journalists in the state.
He said the council had put in place necessary machinery to check and ensure that the profession got rid of quacks in the state.
Resource persons for the workshop were drawn from all walks of life.
They include Sebastian Hon , a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who delivered a paper titled “How to avoid litigation and other legal booby traps” while Taiwo Obe, a renowned journalist spoke on “Changing your story: Using multimedia tools for news gathering and reporting.”
