Presidential Aspirant Condemns Monetization of NUJ Election

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

Ahead of the 2018 Delegates Convention of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), holding in Abeokuta, Ogun State, a presidential candidate of the union, Otunba Mike Aladenika, has decried what he called monetization of the election.

Aladenika who spoke in the premises of the NUJ secretariat in Abeokuta, condemned the monetisation of the process.

“If a candidate of the NUJ election is spending as much as N10 million, giving as much as N10,000 to each delegate, how does he account for that? Where does he get the money from?

“If it is the journalism the you and I are practicing, where most journalists are hardly paid, no one can afford that, except they make the money through fraudulent means or outright sale of the Union

“That is why they could hardly perform when they are eventually elected, because they will want to recoup the millions they had spent.

“Let us call a spade a spade, the way money is being spent on this election is condemnable. How can we condemn the politicians for spending so much money on elections and do even worse?

“Many and better candidates for various positions exist in the Union who may have useful things to offer members of the Union but are deprived because they could not not afford the cost of obtaining the form of intent let alone having money to buy the votes from delegates”

“This has got to stop. We journalists must not continue to sell our future for peanuts. We must stand up against the monetization of our great union,” NUJ is not for sale,” Aladenika said.

Otunba Aladenika is a leading contender among the seven presidential candidates for the NUJ delegate election which holds on Wednesday and Thursday.