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By Bimbola Oyesola
Journalists in Nigeria may have cause to celebrate soon as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has expressed its readiness to collaborate with the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on the issue of better remuneration for journalists.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, noted that journalists are poorly paid and owed for many months by their employers, causing their living conditions and retirement age to be undesirable.
He added that the living condition of most journalists is characterized by hardship and suffering, even as he said that journalists are among the groups that suffer the most indecent job conditions in Nigeria.
While he expressed displeasure that NUJ, an affiliate of the NLC, has stepped backward for no good reason in the affairs of NLC against what it was in the early days of his career, Ajaero said he would meet with leaders of the NUJ to discuss extensively on how to take steps to change the working and living condition of media workers in the country for the better.
He said, “The NUJ is going backwards; they are slacking in the affairs of NLC and I am not afraid of saying this. They have allowed the Guild of Editors to be at the forefront. The guild are the managers and they cannot protect the interest of reporters. I don’t mean to open a debate between journalists being professionals or employees. If you are claiming to be professionals, you are undermining yourselves because 90 per cent of your members earn a living through their employers.
“As professionals, do you have your chambers? Do you have your clinics? So, if we leave the employee aspect of our association and move into the professional aspects, then there is a problem. If we say we are professionals yet our salaries are being paid or determined by one employer somewhere, what kind of professionals are we? You said you are professionals yet you are suffering in silence and your salaries are not being paid.”
The NLC president lamented that media are among the people that are poorly remunerated in Nigeria, adding that the NLC would collaborate with the NUJ to set the machinery in motion, especially on the welfare of journalists, even to the issue of insurance.
“Do you know what happens to journalists on a daily basis?
I want to work with the NUJ to know those organisations that are owing journalists. Don’t tell me you are a professional and they are owing you. And you tell NLC not to come. Don’t expect the Guild of Editors to do it for you. They cannot because they are editors and managers and cannot agitate for your welfare,” he stated.
The Labour leader said the Congress was not trying to incite anybody, but would ensure that right things are done. He stated further, “So we must face the truth. Are we actually professionals? If I say I am not working for organisation today, can I actually stand on my own? And how many of us can stand on their own and continue to exist? So we must decide whether we are employees or professionals. Until we address some of these issues, we may be more Catholic than the Pope.
“How can journalists be working for the welfare of others and be suffering? Some of our colleagues who have left service, we are trying to find out how they are fairing. We will not be happy at all because the conditions of most of them are terrible.”
