Barely few days to the commencement of the World Congress of the International Press Institute (IPI) scheduled to hold from June 21-23 in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, some concerned practicing journalists under the banner of the Journalists Vanguard Forum have called for the boycott of the congress.
A statement signed by the Group’s Executive Director, Mr Wale Adegorokewa queries the moral basis for the Nigerian organizers’ decision to hold the congress in Nigeria, considering their reprehensible and despicable attitude towards the profession and their workers.
Adegorokewa posited in the statement that the essence of establishing the global Institute is for the promotion and protection of press freedom and the improvement of the journalism practice across the globe.
He however described as sad, that when one juxtaposes the core values of the institute with the actions of the Nigerian publishers who are part of the Nigerian chapter, one would wonder why the global institute agrees to hold its important congress in the nation that shows little regards for the practicing journalists and their wellbeing.
“Among the Nigerian IPI members are failed publishers, those whose media organizations were shutdown many years ago because they cannot manage them and yet are still parading themselves as publishers, there were those who owe their workers’ salaries for years, there were those who were running their organizations like slave camps with no regards for the plights of their workers, the lists are endless.
“How can someone who has no regard for the welfare of his workers, and the tenets of the profession be the one championing a global cause for the protection of the profession,” he queried.
He, then called on the global institute to immediately cancel this year’s world congress, because “the Nigerian chapter lacks the requisite moral standing to host this important global congress.”
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