Femi Adesina, Special Assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, said President Muhammadu Buhari would continue with the mandates of serving Nigeria and implementing policies for the betterment of the nation until May 29, 2023.
Adesina stated this at the sideline of the 2022 Campus Journalism Awards organized by Youths Digest in Abuja.
He said: “The mandate is for four years and those four years do not lapse until May 29, till the very last day, governance will continue. The president will continue to serve Nigeria.”
He also advised journalists, especially young students, to adhere to the ethics of the profession and avoid being used to propagate negative ills in society.
”If they strive to become ethical journalists, they can never fail because ethics will guide them to stay on the positive part of the profession.
” The profession has its positive and negative parts, there are those who use journalism for all the things that are despicable.
“They pull down others; they do untrue stories, they blackmail and all others. But if you are determined to become ethical journalists, certainly not even the sky is your limit, you will go as far as you can in the profession. So I will advise our young journalists to take ethics seriously,” he said.
Also, Malam Mannir Dan-Ali, Director, Media Trust Limited, Publishers of Daily Trust Newspaper, encouraged young journalists to contribute meaningfully towards developing the nation.
Dan-Ali also advised them to continue to highlight reports that would build the nation and unite the country.
On his part, Mr. Gidado Shuaibu, Executive Director of the Youths Digest, said the annual award started in 2019 to encourage youths to engage in journalism as a profession and work within ethics.
”The whole point of the Campus Journalism Awards is to pick out those doing well in journalism. Everybody now is a journalist, using the social media platform.
“But what we are doing now is to pick out those who are acting professionally, recognize and award them. This is what we do every year and we will continue to do it,” he said.
On her part, Miss Chinalurumogu Eze, overall winner of the 2022 campus Journalist, said the award would encourage her and others to perform well in the profession.
“You have to keep putting yourself out there as a journalist, you have to wait for the certificate before you start practicing.
“Being a campus journalist means you have to practice professionally, your portfolio becomes bigger and when you apply for bigger opportunities you will get it by putting your content out there,” she said.
Other highlights were the conferment of awards for different categories such as the Campus Journalist Of the Year, Broadcaster of the Year, and Upcoming Writer of the year.
Others are best investigative reporter, best entertainment report, author of the year, sport news of the year, editor of the year, pen club of the year, amongst others.
Contestants were drawn from various higher institutions nationwide.
