Steve Osuji carpets NGE over disqualification
By Emmanuel Iriogbe, Abuja
A well known Editor in Nigeria, Steve Osuji has come hard on the NIGERIAN GUILD OF EDITORS (NGE) aftermatt of his disqualification in the just concluded election of the Guild held in Lagos.
The astute Editor who took to his facebook page to pure invectives on the Guild, compared the election to the recently held general elections in the country.
According to Osuji; “The election of the NGE in Lagos last Saturday symptomized not just the state of the media today but the dire state of our nation Nigeria.
“At a point in the course of the charade, I began to wonder if it was still the NIGERIAN GUILD of Editors gathered or the guild of idiots?
“What happened was the verisimilitude of the last APC/PDP election except the so-called editors exhibited more desperation. It was a conclave of desperadoes who did EVERYTHING to have its way and sit-tight in office”
He further explained that the organisers of the election felt the the only way to stop he was to ‘perjure themselves shamelessly’ by wilfully misinterpreted the construction of the NGE after he purchased form to contest the presidency of the Guild.
He alleged that they disqualified him on the ground that he was no longer a FULL MEMBER OF THE NGE!
He wondered how can be having been a member for precisely 17yrs, that he is currently an exco member having won election in 2017 with the same Article of the constitution subsisting,
Reeling out his pedigree in the media industry, said he was once an editor in The Guardian, Thisday, Newage; and MD/CEO Imo Newspapers,
That he is currently a member of Editorial Board of The Nation Newspapers, a position he has held for 8yrs running.
Furthermore, was Chief Press Secretary to governor of Imo State during which I hosted the NGE in Owerri.
That he is an award-winning columnist, and therefore bemused that was now being branded an Associate, the lowly status of a beginner.
He said reasons for his disqualification stems from the belief that those at the helm of affairs and wanted to sit tight on thwir xurrent positions knew that he would trounce if allowed to contest.
Another sore point Osuji pointed out was the flooding the venue with policemen and plainclothes security operatives; “they were afraid my supporters would violently reject their impunity, their travesty…
“They twisted the constitution and suborned the election committee and have it speaking in strange tongues!
” But desperation is not in my DNA, I am a man of peace and easy ways. I have a life!
“My attempt to contest wasn’t about me, it was for the sake of the Guild and to save them from themselves. They perhaps didn’t notice that the Guild has become odious to respectable publics;
This according to him made invited important personalities like Vice President Osinbajo, information minister, Lai Mohammed and even the host governor Ambode to stay away from the event. Something he said has never happened before.
” My coming was an attempt to allow some light into a much-debased GUILD caught in the clutches of a soulless band… not unlike Nigeria!
While I have left them with the carion… Ib will remember to say some prayer for them… they need it sorely” He concluded.