By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.
Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Crimes Senator Yakubu Oseni, has inaugurated a digital economy centre for members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kogi State council.
Oseni representing Kogi Central district at the National Assembly who facilitated the procurement and installation of the facility at the NUJ Press Center, Lokoja, said the project was executed through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The Senator said globally, all professions are being technologically driven and journalism could not afford to be left behind adding that the center is his modest contribution to growth and development of modern journalism practice in the state.
Oseni said the gesture was borne out of his desire to do the right thing rather than attracting accolades and commendation from the journalists.
He said journalists must be digitally inclined stressing that bringing digital transformation to the door step of the people in this part of the world remained the right thing to do.
“We know the importance of journalists and the media practitioners and if you are not carried along in this global digital revolution, you will be left behind economically, politically and socially”, he said.
The Senator also condoled the NUJ over recent deaths in the Council starting with Mrs Zainab Adeiza, wife of the council chairman and Elder Sam Egwu, Correspondent of the Leadership Newspapers who passed on recently and prayed God to grant them repose of their souls.
Responding to an earlier request by a member of the council, the senator promised to install an industrial Air Conditioner Split unit in the NUJ secretariat hall.
Also speaking, Mr Tims Ejiga, former Vice-President, NUJ, Zone D, commended the Senator for the gesture saying that he is different from others who would simply disappear after using the journalists to help clinch their ambitions.
Earlier in his welcome address, the NUJ Council Chairman, Adeiza Momohjimoh, on behalf of the working journalists in the state, expressed his gratitude to the senator for being a friend in need and indeed.
Momohjimoh who described Oseni as “The Senator That Drinks The Palm Wine And Keeps Its Keg” said “I want us to note this, the Senator representing the Central Senatorial District of the state is not a Journalist.
“Senator Oseni is an Economist. If he had been a media person before he became a Senator, we would have said he is extending this gesture to us because of his common professional source with us.
“We should also note that the Senator is not on the ballot for 2023 election. He is not contesting election back into the Senate. Yet, he has chosen to help the Union with this befitting Digital Economy Centre.
“He knew he had sought for the vote of the electorate in order for him to have the opportunity to deliver the dividends of democracy to them.
“That is exactly what he has done with this special donation to us. He is not the kind of Senator who will drink the palm wine served him by the people and break the palm wine keg. He is a grateful man.
“We want to use this opportunity to call on those, especially politicians who rose to high political positions on the crest of the votes they got from the electorate to always remember to give back to the people. They should remember that the river which forgets its source does so at its own peril.
“The special gift from our Senator is something that we are proud of and for which we shall ever remain grateful to our humble, easygoing and generous national lawmaker”, Momoh-Jimoh said.