2027: Kogi REC pledges synergy with Correspondents Chapel.
* Hosts members.
Towards ensuring that the forthcoming general elections in kogi state kick off seamlessly, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Shehu Wahab has pledged his commitment to partner with Members of Correspondents Chapel of NUJ for the dissemination of reliable and timely information to the electorate.
The REC made the disclosure on Tuesday while hosting members of the Correspondents Chapel in his office in Lokoja.
Dr. Wahab, noted that, Correspondents Chapel members remain critical to the success in effective purveyance of credible information during electioneering period and so should be held tightly by the commission for the success of her mandate.
He said, as a former staff of the commission and now a Resident Commissioner,he hold the press tenaciously to his chest and will ensure the cordial relationships he had enjoyed in his previous assignments is maintained with the members in the state.
He averred that there cannot be a better institution that he expects to be fair than the press and So, he is ready and committed to a robust relationship that will tell him the right way to succeed .
According to him” I want to assure you that I will be willing to tell you as efficiently as possible information about our electoral activities. And I will start with something of humility.
“When I was in Nassarawa state we talked alongside some persons in the voter registration department and I must remember, we had a WhatsApp group. We belonged to the platform .We have a phone book circle where we easily access every political activity that we are doing.And it helps us to also pass information among ourselves, we need to replicate that here.
He further explained that the Voter Education Department, the first department that gets election monitoring,as their work starts ahead of the actual election day, insisting that what they are going to be doing will not just be about press conferences but also going to involve correspondents'members in discussion programs across both the electronic, print and traditional media. He added that all electoral processes would be on air and solicited for the support of members to help drive the innovation even to serve as panel and anchor of some of the programmes on radio and television and other institutional media.
He stated that when Journalists anchor or participates in voter education programs, electorate tends to believe the genuineness of the messages rather than when it is purely disseminated by the staff of the commission
“Therefore, I need to be working for instance with National Orientation Agency NOA, with some of these individuals in terms of inviting political parties to be part of the Awareness campaign on radio. Because if you don’t diversify the people you bring in, you may not going to get the best.
“I want to assure you that we don’t mind inviting the chairman of the NUJ alongside the director of voter education to be mutually involved in our activities. ” I have just been appointed here. I’m new. I don’t know much about here like you do. Your experience in the state is far longer and more, you know entrenched things thanb I do. I was called in here. And I think there is some guidance that can help me to avoid some pitfalls. “But when an administrator thinks he knows it all, he is already in trouble as there are calculated or there are not, hence,your collaboration with us of the essence.There cannot be a better institution that we expect to be fair than you. So when you tell me that watch that thing you are saying,it is not exactly the way you are saying it. I believe you wholeheartedly, because you are closer to the people than I.So working with you is to tell me the right way to succeed. Talking about information, I also want to assure you that I will be willing to tell you as efficiently as possible information about our electoral activities” the REC assured.
Earlier, the chairman of Correspondents Chapel, Segun Salami , commended the commissioner for hosting the members even within short notice.
He informed that Correspondents Chapel is an amalgam of all National newspapers and electronic media operating in the state, assuring that the Chapel would collaborate with the commission to project her activities across the state.
He assured the commissioner of the readiness of members to carry out their duties efficiently and professionally throughout the electioneering and election periods.
