By Felix Durumbah, Abuja
The good works she had done in her first term in office spoke for her as Ngozi Uloma Ufomba has been re-elected unopposed for a final tenure as Chairman, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) chapel of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The polls, which held recently inside National Assembly Quarters, Apo, Abuja, also involved those for members of a new Executive Council (Exco) for the chapel, one of the most vibrant in FCT Council of NUJ.
Others elected were Amechi Paul Obiora, as Vice Chairman; Innocent Mbanugo, Treasurer; Elaigwu Abigail Ngohile, Assistant Secretary; and Madugu Hauwa Mahmud, as Auditor.
The Secretary and Financial Secretary positions will be filled after a bye-election to be conducted in accordance with the NUJ Constitution.
Gushing with joy, Ufomba, popularly known simply as Ngozi within FCTA, in her acceptance speech, thanked the Electoral Committee for conducting free, fair, and transparent elections, and thumbed up chapel members for the fresh mandate handed her.
Stressing that “this victory does not belong to me alone, it belongs to all of us,” the Chairman vowed to build upon her accomplishments for union members in her first tenure.
She noted that by re-electing her, they had opted for action-assured continuity, experience, transparency, accountability and progress.
Ngozi recalled the fulfillment of the promises she made before her immediate past tenure, pointing, among several others, to the plethora of training and retraining programmes enjoyed by members which built their professional and service delivery capacity, thus transforming them into better public information officers.
The Chairman also emphasized the successful payment of weigh-in allowance to all eligible officers, and the formation of a cooperative society to enhance members’ capacity to own their individual homes in FCT, as some other achievements.
People&Politics notes that a weigh-in allowance is a Federal Government (FG)-approved special financial incentive added to a public-owned media outfit worker’s basic salary to compensate for the high-pressure, unpredictable, and demanding nature of their jobs, given that they often work late nights or odd hours.
Aside these achievements, the Chairman said the tenure witnessed several public sensitization programmes on insecurity and drug abuse in schools, initiated and executed by her leadership, in addition to many other feats.
“In my first tenure, by God’s grace and your support, we achieved a lot together: We built capacity through trainings. We fought insecurity with sensitization. We took the war against drug abuse to our schools.
“We secured the weigh-in allowance for our members. We delivered a historic Press Week. And we started a cooperative society for our members to own homes,” she recalled.
Despite these accomplishments, the Chairman insisted that “our work is not done.”
During her second term, she vowed, there will be morre trainings “to keep our members relevant and ahead in this digital age”; timely welfare; provision of a union bus “to ease our movement for assignments and chapel activities”; as well as proactive sensitization programmes on issues affecting the FCT and media profession.
Furthermore, Ngozi promised to deliver a bigger and better Press Week “to further put NUJ FCTA on the map” as well as the development of the union members’ parent Department of Information into a Secretariat (equivalent of full Ministry in State government structure).
People&Politics recalls that FCTA, by the provisions of Section 299 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is to be governed “as if it were a state.” On the strength of this, FCTA runs with several Secretariats.
The paper notes that the Department of Information, which houses hundreds of Information Officers, most posted to FCTA’s Secretariats, Departments and Agencies (SDAs) as Public Relations Officers/Information Officers, with a relative few retained to man the FCTA-owned newspaper, Abuja Digest, has long been deemed to be suffocatingly managing to punch above its weight, seeing that it is supposed to be elevated to the status of a Secretariat (equivalent of Ministry of Information).
Rallying the union members for unity, the chapel Chairman urged them to stand behind her and promised to continue to render all-inclusive, transparent, and accountable leadership.
Congratulating the new Exco, Chairman, FCT Council of NUJ, Grace Ike, represented by Secretary of the Council, Comrade Jide Oyekunle, stressed that inclusive and accountable leadership should be the watchword of the Exco.
Ike emphasized that leadership was not about personal superiority, but hinges on group interest and called on the Exco to work for the good of all members.
The FCT Director of Information, Mr Anthony Ogunleye, led a colourful array of prominent persons and cheering staff members at the event.
Highlight of the event was the inauguration of the new Exco and the handing of their Certificates of Return to each officer.
*PHOTO CAPTION:5th left, Comrade Ngozi Ufomba; left, Deputy Director, Information/Head of PR, Department of Road Traffic Services (DRTS), Kalu Emetu; 4th left, Chairman , Credentials Committee, Sarah Odugbo; 2nd right, Secretary, Credentials Committee, Emmanuel Tortiv; far right, Innocent Mbanugo; and others, including the elected officers displaying their certificates of return.
