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The media has been charged to take investigative reporting more seriously as the 2019 elections approach.
Mr. Femi Babalola, Chairman of Pentagon Engineering and Jogor Events Centre, said at the weekend that media practitioners ought to be deeply concerned with the current economic situation.
He said this while delivering a lecture titled, “What Roles for the Media Ahead of 2019 Election” at the one year anniversary of online news medium, Paragon News and the 40th Birthday of an Executive Member of the Oyo state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ademola Babalola.
The jogor boss said: “At the setting in of social crisis, we will return to the state of nature where both life and property would no longer be safe or guaranteed as a result of widespread anarchy that will result. As I have said earlier, both economic and social stability are functions of diligent governance and adept leadership. So your focus right away, giving your power of command and control as journalists, is to guide this great nation to right political choice in 2019. That patriotic role, dear pen pushers, begins right away”.
A former Editor-In-Chief of Nigerian Tribune, Mr. Felix Adenaike enjoined the political class not to be complacent that Nigerian voters are robots, stressing that “this is the reason why as media professionals, we should always put them on their toes by making sure that we are duly involved in setting agenda for good governance, accountability and probity as demanded of us in the constitution (section 22). This lecture is timely and should be emulated by all media professionals.”
The Commissioner of Information in the state, Hon. Toye Arulogun, was also at the event.
Other stakeholders at the event are Mr. Yomi Layinka, the Special Adviser on Media to Governor Abiola Ajimobi represented by a Senior Special Assistant, Mr. Akin Oyedele, a former NUJ Chairman, Mr. Gbenga Ayoade, the incumbent Vice-Chairman of the union and a former Secretary, Prince Segun Adeyemo and Mr. Samson Tunde Abiodun, members of the League of Veteran Journalists, Lagelu Grammar School OldBoys, celebrant’s colleagues from across the Media Houses in Oyo state, SWAN, NAWOJ, Online Media colleagues, officials of Union Bank, FMBN, NUPENG, BayseOne Hotel, Fidelity Bank, among others.