Five leading Newspaper Editors in Akwa Ibom State have come together to condemn the ongoing Journalism Clinic conducted for Journalists based in Akwa Ibom State by Mr. Ibanga Isine a former Editor of Premium Times, which they said had ulterior motives.
The young media gurus made their position known through a strong worded statement made available earlier today; they said that relying on facts at their disposals, the conveners of the programme had no intentions of promoting media practice in the state but was rather on a selfish venture aimed at enriching themselves.
The release which is signed by Mr. Nsibiet John, Editor of the Ink Newspaper, Mr. Ifreke Nseowo, Editor of the Mail Newspaper, Mr. Emmanuel Sam, Editor of the Guide Newspaper, Gideon Ekere, Editor of the Post Newspaper and Kufre Edet, Editor of Global Accord Newspaper alleged that the champion of the programme is out to defraud highly placed members of the society.
The release also accused Mr. Ibanga Isine of blackmailing and castigating journalists in Akwa Ibom State in order to be seen as the only clean and Professional journalist in the State.
They stressed that Mr. Ibanga Isine is a broken record who needs to visit a clinic for character and ego diagnosis and proper treatment rather than becoming a nuisance to other colleagues in the profession.
The release also questioned the rationale behind the selection of only 150 journalists by Mr. Ibanga Isine for the exercise which they alleged was borne out of greed and mischief out of the over 500 practicing journalists in the state.
The release advised journalists in the state to steer clear the exercise since the organizer had little or no respect for journalists practicing state and is generally known for labeling journalists in the state with disparaging names without evidence to back up his allegations.
Read the full statement Below:
AKWA IBOM JOURNALISM CLINIC: AN ATTENTION SEEKING VENTURE
Our attention has been drawn to an ongoing charade in the Secretariat of the Akwa Ibom State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) organized by Next EditionNewspaper, an online platform and championed by a certain Ibanga Isine under the coverage of a 3-day journalism clinic with the theme ‘Attaining high impact, socially responsible and rewarding journalism practice in Akwa Ibom State’.
The exercise to the best of our knowledge is nothing but a self-seeking enterprise geared towards defrauding highly placed members of the society whom the champion had hitherto been antagonizing.
When some of us got a letter from the organizers to attend the mockery exercise, the contents of the letter of invite was totally misleading, warped and highly provocative, thus exposing the hypocritical nature of the champion of this so called journalism clinic.
Let us be abundantly clear here that the undersigned have no problems whatsoever with any arm of government, institution both public and private organizing seminars, tutorials or whatever name one may so chose for journalists. But when it is borne out of mischief, selfishness and greed, we as major custodians of this profession will do ourselves and other professionals no good by keeping quiet.
The champion of this charade, Ibanga Isine has a penchant for discrediting, lambasting, and denigrating his colleagues on electronic and social media simply because they operate from Akwa Ibom. In his egoistic and holier-than-thou attitude, he had upon his redundancy took to sycophantic ways of making ends meet by blackmailing Akwa Ibom State based journalists in order to be seen as “Mr Clean” and “Mr. Professional”.
It is however pertinent for us to raise few posers for Isine amongst which are; how did you diagnose Akwa Ibom journalists to distinguish between the clean and unclean? Out of the over 500 journalists in Akwa Ibom, how did you arrive at the 150 you invited? Are those the ones you found out to be unclean? Where did you get the funding for this your jamboree or have you suddenly become a father Christmas of your generation that you use your personal funds to organize trainings?
Again, let us without fear of contradiction remind Ibanga Isine that he once described Akwa Ibom journalists as corrupt and poorly trained. We think rather than embarking on this his no result-oriented voyage, he should seek the prosecution of those he claims are corrupt.
As a broken record which Ibanga Isine is, we are of the opinion and rightly so that he should visit a clinic himself for character and ego diagnosis and proper treatment instead of becoming a nuisance to other colleagues in the media.
Our position however does not constitute a barrier to Ibanga Isine’s bid to becoming a campaign organization’s spokesman for a certain political party ahead of the 2019 governorship election in Akwa Ibom State which he has been lobbying for.
To the innocent participants, we strongly advise that you throw away whatever piece of paper that would be handed to you in the name of certificate, attestation, testimonial or under any guise as failure to do so will attest to the fact that Ibanga Isine was right to have called you corrupt and poorly trained.
Conclusively therefore, we wish to state that we shall support and even participate in any media tutorials that would be genuinely organized as long as such does not have ulterior motives.
MAY THE BLESSINGS BE.
SIGNED:
1. NSIBIET JOHN LENS INK MEDIA
2. IFREKE NSEOWO THEMAIL NEWSPAPER
3. EMMANUEL SAM THE GUIDE NEWSPAPER
4. GIDEON EKERE THE POST NEWSPAPER
5. KUFRE EDET GLOBAL ACCORD