President Bola Tinubu has enjoined media practitioners in the country to prioritize national interest, while discharging their professional responsibilities.
The president gave the charge, while declaring open the All Nigeria Editors conference organized by the Nigeria Guild of Editors holding at the DSP Alamieyeseigha Banquet Hall, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Represented by the Minister of Information and Orientation, Alhaji Muhammad Idris, Tinubu called on members of the editors guild to see themselves as partners in progress with government at all levels.
“It is your constitutional duty to criticize what is wrong, but you must not lose sight of the fact that you must have a nation. Nigeria must exist before its newspapers exist.
“So, when you play your very important role to keep Nigeria going, please also ensure that Nigeria has to survive; Nigeria has to exist,” the president stated.
Tinubu however, hailed the individual and collective efforts of veteran journalists toward ensuring Nigeria’s democracy remained unbroken.
He said the country’s democracy coukd not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of the media.
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Also speaking, chairman of This Day Newspaper and Arise Television, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, advocated that Nigeria should get its industries working, particularly the four federal government refineries as a way of fixing the ailing economy.
Prince Obaigbena suggested that the current reforms by the Tinubu administration needed to be humane towards supporting the poor and other vulnerable groups in society.
President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, Mr Eze Anaba, said the focus of the annual conference was on two inter-linked themes, which were the growth of the nation’s economy and sustainability of the media industry.
He identified adaptability to modern trends and availability of resource materials as major threats to the survival of the industry.
Also speaking, former governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba, said he was impressed by the high turn out of participants, just as he hailed Governor Douye Diri for his administration’s efforts at developing the state, noting that Yenagoa, the state capital, used to be known for its one-road city status.
Similarly, the publisher of Vanguard Newspaper, Dr. Sam Amuka, bemoaned the challenges facing the media industry, particularly the print media, which he attributed to the removal of oil subsidy by the present administration.
