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The Editor of the Vanguard newspaper, Eze Anaba has been elected the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) at its Biennial Convention held in Owerri on Friday. Anaba scored 250 votes to defeat his rival, Bolaji Adebiyi of Thisday Newspaper, who scored 81 votes in the election.
In a related development, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), has congratulated the newly elected President and members of the Guild for a rancour free election, saying it has sent a resounding message to the larger Nigerian polity that elections for desired offices can be intensely competed for without degenerating into bitterness, acrimony and needless malice. Thus, challenging other unions in the newspaper industry to follow in the same light.
“On behalf of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), I congratulate the newly elected President of the Guild, Mr Eze Anamba, Editor of the Vanguard newspaper and wish him and other newly elected officials of the guild a most fulfilling and productive tenure in office.
“By its peaceful and rancor-free conduct of elections to elect its new officers, the NGE has sent a resounding message to the larger Nigerian polity that elections for desired offices can be intensely competed for without degenerating into bitterness, acrimony and needless malice.
“In this regard, Mr President commends those who lost out in the elections at various levels such as Mr Bolaji Adebiyi of This Day newspaper for accepting the outcome and pledging support for the winners. This is a light that the NGE is showing that the rest of us may find the way to a mature, tolerant, stable and sustainable democratic culture.
“It is of the utmost importance that the various unions in the newspaper industry such as the NGE, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) imbibe the ethos of internal democracy in support of professional integrity for the benefit of good governance, stability and sustainability development in Nigeria. The NGE has, in this regard, made a strong statement for the Nigerian media as a worthy exemplar. But then, elections are not held within the unions in our profession just for the sake of holding elections to appoint new officers of associational offices. Rather, the larger picture is to ensure at all times that we place the profession in prime position to continually fulfill its constitutional obligation of serving as a watchdog of the people in checking the excesses of government and promoting the greatest good of the greatest number of our people,” the statement signed by the Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake, reads in part.
Anaba will be succeeding Mr Mustspha Isa of the Silverbird Group.
