‘Any attempt to make wrong choice in 2023 will take the country many years back’ _ Udom warns

Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, has called on Nigerians to look inward as the 2023 general elections approach and select leaders that would take the country out of the woods and not those that would plunge the nation deeper into deficits.

He gave this counsel during the official opening of the 2022 Correspondents’ Chapel week retreat held at Roses Regency Hotels and Suites, Wuye District, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on Monday.

In the event themed, ‘In search of a better Nigeria through responsible journalism’, he said the call has become necessary as Nigeria was in a critical stage of her economic and political development and requires the right leadership to salvage it from disintegration.

Represented by his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong, the governor warned that any attempt to make the wrong choice in 2023 would take the country many years back.

In his solidarity message at the retreat, the Akwa Ibom State Council Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Comrade Amos Etuk, observed with dismay the diminishing of the critical role of journalists by politicians in political campaigns to reach the electorates.

“The politicians seeking our votes have dismissed our relevance, they forget that all of us seated here today and millions across 774 Local Government Areas in the country are the structures needed to give our country the best in the next few months.”

He, therefore, charged Journalists to set the agenda for transformational leadership ahead of the 2023 general elections.

“We must set agenda for good and transformational leadership. We must write with boldness, resist the current attempts to lay siege against the media, we must insist on a free press all within the boundaries of the ethics of this well-respected profession,” he added.

Earlier, in her welcome address, the Chairman, Correspondents’ Chapel of the NUJ, Idongesit Ashameri, Akwa Ibom State chapter, charged her colleges to ensure that they hold political leaders accountable and remind them of their electioneering promises to the people.

She regretted that most journalists are quick and thrilled to give the best colouration and in the most appealing ways to such promises by politicians which sadly most of them fail to fulfill.

“But the question is how often do we consciously remind governments at all levels of the need to ensure congruence between their policies and programmes in office with the electioneering promises earlier made to the electorate through our various media organisations.

“Gentlemen, this is where our responsibility comes in. This outing is therefore designed to afford us the opportunity to retrain our members on the rudiments of responsible journalism especially as the general elections approach.

“It is our expectations that carefully selected world-class scholars, captains of industries, core professionals, and enthusiasts in their various fields drill us and do justice to this timely theme. We have no doubt that this outing would also afford us the opportunity to be re-equipped with techniques and skills on how best to track, consciously remind and hold government accountable to its electioneering promises”.