Is it too much to take one out of the 52 weeks to look at your practice and think about your welfare and protection? If this is an offence, then Correspondents in Port Harcourt are big offenders. This is because they have ‘stolen’ one full week from April 7 to 13, 2025, to look at themselves. That does not mean they will not look at the society, sure they will.
Freedom of the press seems to take away everything about the press such that only the World Press Freedom Day being May 3 seems to be celebrated and regarded.
Press Week idea thus seems to be something new and optional. It may even be an ‘offence’ to care about yourself and your welfare. But, we know that Press Week has come to stay, even in the White House in Washington.
In the states here in Nigeria, the Chapels of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the state chapters also mark their Press Weeks at one time or the other. It is a mark of success to every leadership.
Yours sincerely has been severally involved in organizing and planning this, from Benue to Rivers (Makurdi to Port Harcourt).
What actually do journalists want to achieve with this that makes them to go out begging or is it appealing to those they regard as friends of the Union or the Chapel?
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One day, I went on appeal in Port Harcourt. A CEO sat me down to explain why we were asking for financial support. I told him we donate to orphanages each edition. He flared up. Why should people who seemed to be the real needy go about aspiring to donate to charity? Hahahah!
I left with a lesson in how to think about self. I narrated this to my colleagues back in the Chapel and we had a good and big laugh. That brought me to an article I wrote many years ago in Post Express where I asked: Who are we writing for?
I wrote a story about (or against) a python that proved false and I had to take responsibility. I apologized in one full page article. I quoted a BBC Correspondent who fell into a likely trap but apologized. He had stated that a journalist can always slip but that what matters is to apologise and take correction from the episode.
I saw how those who benefited from a prolific reporter would stand and watch when the hero slips, never rising up for him. The BBC Correspondent urged us not to stay fallen but to apologise and move on. The lesson is that nobody owes a thing to a Journalist. When you defend the masses, they hail you, when you fall, they laugh or find a tag of blame on you and move on. So, I chose to stay close to my ethics, my pen, and my life.
So, we in Port Harcourt have decided to ‘steal’ one week every year from the 52 belonging to our masters, the masses, and come together to reflect on our career, our practice, and our lives. We use the Week to test the society to know those who care about us or merely tolerate us. Over the years, we have found out. When we get injured, most leaders do not care, but when they wince, we wail for them. That’s sad.
So, this year, we are having fun, and knowledge. The professor of economics and founder/president of the Garden City Premier Business School, Silva Opuala-Charles, seasoned financial practitioner and onetime Commissioner of Finance in Bayelsa State, joined us. He even came very early and sat humbly until we were ready. He taught us by not speaking a word. When it was time for him to speak as Special Guest of Honour, he exploded. We shouted.
The professor came as worthy occupant of the slot left behind by the state governor who is on suspension and the sole administrator who did not respond to our letter. The next slot was taken up ably by Chinyere Nwoga (PhD), the first female president of the PH City Chamber. Chamberlain Peterside represented by Atonye Wilcox all of Xcellent Capital Advisors was a very able chairman.
We have taken one week for the Journalists, so help us God.
