ABUJA — A bill to amend the Nigerian Press Council Act of 1992 to, among others, provide a channel for the public and media establishments to seek redress on issues concerning them went through second reading in the Senate yesterday.
Also yesterday, Senators continued debate on the general principles of the 2005 budget proposals presented by President Olusegun Obasanjo to the National Assembly. The Press Council Bill 2004 was sponsored by Senator Jonathan Zwingina, Deputy Senate leader. He listed monitoring of journalists and the press as a whole and receiving the register of members of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria and Braodcasting Organisation of Nigeria among the aims of the body.
The council he said, would also ensure protection of the rights and privileges of journalists in the lawful performance of their professional duties. The council shall be autonomous and possess a code of ethics, which shall guide all journalists. A very important aspect of the council is that it prescribes conditions for qualification as journalists and of resolving cases of misconduct, through the allocation of appropriate penalties,” Senator Zwingina submitted yesterday.
Senators Chris Adighije (PDP, Abia Central), Uche Chukwumerije (PDP, Abia North), Abubakar Sodangi (PDP, Nasarawa), Farouk Bello (ANPP, Kebbi Central) and Bassey Ewa-Henshaw (PDP, Cross River) were among senators that contributed to the debate on the bill yesterday. Senator Adighije said the new council will help to check unbridled sensationalism in the papers as he noted that some sections of the press had tended to abuse the freedom given to it. "Some people are abusing the freedom of the press to wreak havoc,” Adighije said.
The bill was committed to the Senate Committee on Information led by Senator Tawar Wada. The committee is to report in four weeks time. Among the Senators who spoke on the budget were Senators James Manager (PDP, Delta South), Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu), Ambuno Zik Sunday (PDP, Taraba) and Patrick Osakwe (PDP, Delta North).
In his contribution to the debate yesterday, Senator Manager welcomed the early presentation of the budget proposal and the administration’s reform programmes which he said were obviously meant for the betterment of the country. He, however, lamented the pains the reforms were producing on the citizenry as he called for the reforms to have a human face. According to him, Nigerians who were the target of the reforms must survive the reforms or it would be meaningless. While welcoming the broad agreement to keep half of the excess crude revenue, Senator Manager called for half of the retained revenue to be channeled into the development of the Niger Delta region from which most of the country’s revenue is produced.
Noting the general complaints by Senators on the lack of roads and water in their constituencies, Senator Manager said: "I don’t have roads, not to talk of bad roads and if government is able to come to our aid God Almighty will be happy and bless us with more production.”
In his own contribution, Senator Ekweremadu faulted the $27barrel benchmark for crude oil sales and the President’s assertion on the number of roads rehabilitated. Noting the state of the Enugu - Port Harcourt expressway which he said was still in a state of disrepair, Senator Ekweremadu wondered that some of the President’s aides may well be deceiving him on the situation of things on the ground. In his own contribution, Senator Zik Sunday sought for more focus on poverty reduction even as he called for measures to reduce the country’s debt burden which he said was hampering development.
