Rising from its Standing Committee Meeting held in Owerri, Imo State at the weekend, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, has charged the Federal Government to make good its promise to rescue the over 200 Chibok school girls abducted by terrorists on April 15. A communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and signed by its President, Femi Adesina, urged urgency and firmness on the part of the Federal Government.
The Guild expressed sadness over the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, and called on the Federal Government to live up to its promise to free the girls, adding that the abduction was not only an assault on Chibok community, but the entire country.
While praising Nigerians for rising up in unison against the abduction of the schoolgirls and commending the international community for offering assistance to Nigeria to free them, the Guild urged Nigerians to be security conscious and pass relevant information to security agents whom it charged to promptly act on such information in order to stop terrorism in the country.
The editors also decried the acrimonious nature of the ongoing National Conference and called on delegates to watch their utterances which it said were capable of causing more disunity in the country.
On the economic front, the Guild welcomed the recent rebasing of the Nigerian economy, stressing however that it expected the new economic status conferred on Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa to reflect on the per capita income and the standard of living of Nigerians as well as infrastructure development.
The position of the Guild reflects the voices of many Nigerians who had wondered at the growing poverty quotient in the country in the face of its current profile as Africa’s largest economy.
The Guild called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, politicians and the people to ensure
that the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states “are free, fair and credible in order for them to act as a template for the 2015 general elections”.
The Guild noted the place of sports in the unity and development of the country and urged the government to seize the occasion of the FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth
Games holding later in the year to rally Nigerians to unity and oneness by adequately funding the participation of the country at these events.
The body of Nigerian editors commended the Imo State government for hosting the Standing Committee Meeting, the second this year.
