The Enugu State Governor, Mr. Peter Mbah, has been urged by the Freelance Journalists Federation to address the dispute surrounding the validity of his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
The group, led by Mr. Richard Oduma, begged Mbah to stop funding organisations and people to protest the NYSC and its director general, Brig. Gen. Y.D. Ahmed.
The organisation said in a statement that it had discovered the Governor had spent N100 million on publications intended to disparage the personality of the NYSC DG and the organisation, which made the advice imperative.
The media’s steadfast reporting on a situation that is already before the courts for resolution, in the group’s opinion, is strange.
The governor may be anticipating an impending defeat in the courts and tribunals, as shown by the recent spate of sponsored publications that criticise the NYSC and its administration, and as a result, is using state resources to entice journalists to attack the integrity of the NYSC.
We feel forced to speak out on this matter as a group concerned about the integrity of the journalism profession, particularly as it pertains to the promotion of good governance and defence of human rights. Our discoveries that a whopping amount of N100 million has been used to sway columnists and journalists to write articles aiming to defend the governor of Enugu State and criticise the NYSC and its leadership cause us concern.
We are especially concerned that the governor has started down this path by acting irrationally and personally against the law rather than focusing on delivering effective government while he is in office. We advised journalists to resist the temptation of letting politicians use them to further personal objectives since doing so would undermine the purpose of journalism.
In reality, the governor ought to spend the money spent on fighting fictitious foes for the benefit of Enugu State’s administration and residents. It is terrible that he would exploit public resources during his brief tenure in government to pursue a pointless and self-centered cause, the organisation said.
It also said that if the governor disregarded its instructions, it would be forced to cast doubt on each certificate he had shown and, as a result, investigate each credential he displayed.
The group continued, “Governor Mbah should use the resources at his disposal to pay backlogs in salaries, pensions, and other retiree entitlements as well as address the numerous other developmental issues requiring funds instead of plundering the state resources in an effort to intimidate the NYSC and its management.”
They urged the public to scrutinise any disclosures made against the NYSC by tainted civil society organisations and other people and to let the court make a decision.