Press Release:MURIC CONDOLES NUJ ON LOSS OF SIX IN ACCIDENT 23rd May 2007

Six journalists lost their lives while others sustained serious injuries in a motor accident which occurred last week involving vehicles in the convoy of Governor Joshua Dariye of Plateau State.

With hearts filled with grief, we of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) hereby express our condolence to the leadership and entire members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists over this unquantifiable loss. Young and industrious colleagues have been cut down and wasted in their prime, victims of the systemic deficiencies and infrastructural epilepsy of the Nigerian nation-state.

We commiserate with the families of the deceased journalists and pray that Almighty Allah will strengthen and empower them psychologically, spiritually and economically. The Glorious Qur’an has a message for the bereaved families: “All souls shall taste of death” (Qur’an 3:185) and “Wherever you are, death will find you out…all things are from Allah” (Qur’an 4: 78). We therefore charge them to accept the grim realities of the new challenge facing them and adjust quickly in their own interest and that of their young ones.

MURIC appeals to all members of the NUJ not to be discouraged by this grave setback but to view it as another challenge thrown at them by the visionless leadership of the past. This challenge can only be surmounted with greater dedication to duty, unassailable courage and a stronger resolve of members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm to play its traditional role in the task of nation-building to a logical conclusion.

In view of the fact that indiscipline (drunkenness, overspeeding, lack of concentration, etc) among drivers and bad roads have been named as correlates responsible for accidents on Nigerian roads, we call on the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to intensify its training and re-training of drivers all over the country. The Federal Government owes it a duty to give the necessary moral and material support to the FRSC to enable the latter carry out its responsibilities. We charge the National Assembly and the various state assemblies to enact such legislations that will effectively empower the FRSC in the discharge of its duties.

MURIC calls on the Plateau State Government to pick up the bills of journalists hospitalized as a result of this fatal accident. The State Government should also extend palliative measures to the widows and orphans of the six journalists who died in the accident.

We wish to assert the significant and indispensable role played by the Fourth Estate of the Realm in the polity. The press is the oil that lubricates the engine of democracy and the rule of law. Good governance is not good without the press informing the public about its good activities. Journalists are partners in progress working pari passu with governments and their services are sine qua non in a democratic dispensation. In fact they can be government’s footsoldiers where transparency is the keyword.

We therefore urge the Federal Government to establish with immediate effect a special fund to cater for the welfare of widows and orphans left behind by journalists who die in the line of duty. Such orphans should enjoy scholarship from primary to university level while the welfare package should include accommodation package for the family.

Dr. Is-haq Akintola
DIRECTOR