Editors’ Panacea for Nigeria’s Malaise

Fri, Jan 9, 2015
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3 MIN READ

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At the end of its last quarterly meeting in Lagos, the Nigerian Guild of Editors issues a communique with recommendations on how to move the country forward

By Maureen Chigbo  |  Jan. 19, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT  |

THE Nigerian Guild of Editor, NGE, ended their last quarterly meeting in 2014 in Lagos, recently, with a communique covering a broad range of problems that have bedeviled the country and provided the panacea for them. The areas covered in the communique include politics, economy, education, security and sport.

The Editors teed off with the coming general election in February, urging fair play in the February 2015 general elections, as the reputation of the country, as well as that of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is at stake. “With the shoddy arrangements in the issuance of permanent voters cards, there is urgent need for INEC to redeem the process by ensuring that eligible voters are not disenfranchised,” it said.

The editors advised the political class, security agents and the populace to be cautious in their utterances, abide by the rules of campaigning and exhibit tolerance before and during the elections to avoid over-heating the polity. “Security agencies, particularly, should be non-partisan,” said the communique issued from NGE’s secretariat and signed by Femi Adesina, its president.

The NGE noted that insurgency has lasted for too long in the northern part of the country, especially in Nigeria’s North East, with its attendant huge death toll and massive number of internally displaced persons. The crises call for harmonisation of efforts, change of tactics, and a review of the country’s security architecture, to win the war.

It noted that the sudden sharp fall in global oil prices is a wake-up call on the Nigerian government to urgently go beyond rhetoric by developing economic policies and measures to diversify the economy. The federal and other arms of government must take drastic actions to reduce the huge cost of governance, particularly in the face of recently announced austerity measures, it said.

The Guild expressed worry over the high failure rate in the just released November/December results of the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, believing it is symptomatic of the decay in the education sector. It therefore calls for increased allocation to the education sector, and training and retraining of teachers.

The NGE appreciates the unifying role of sports globally, and laments that as the Nations Cup kicks off in January 2015, our national team, Super Eagles and defending champions will be conspicuously absent at the AFCON tournament. The football authorities are therefore urged to resolve all issues bedeviling the nation’s sports sector with promptitude.

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