Mudashiru Obasa, Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker
Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, on Monday challenged media professionals to come up with bills that would help sanitise their practice and rid it of quacks.
Obasa also charged the media professionals not to shirk from their duties to the society but that in doing this, they should put the interest of the country at heart.
The Speaker, who gave this charge at the opening of a four-day workshop for correspondents of the Lagos State House of Assembly, held in the Oshodi area of the state also promised to continue with the culture of training media professionals of the House, a practice started by his predecessor, Adeyemi Ikuforiji.
He thanked members of the Lagos House of Assembly Correspondents Association, LAHACA, for “the wonderful job they have been doing before and after my assumption of office.
“It is worthy to note that LAHACA members have been wonderful in their support, cooperation for us through prompt publication and report of our activities and for this, I remain ever grateful.
“However, like Oliver Twist, we will continue to ask for more from you. There is always room for improvement in anything we do.”
The Speaker, who said he operates an open-door policy, promised to always listen to advice, work on complaints and grievances and strive to assist journalists where possible.
Commenting on the theme of the workshop, ‘Dynamics of Digital Tools for Journalism Practice’, Obasa, who read his speech from his mobile to show the importance of information technology in today’s world, said: “it is an open secret that the advent of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought the world under one global computerized village.
“The world is now computerised and the survival or otherwise of any professional or profession depends on the knowledge and operation of the computer anchored on ICT applications.
“The journalism profession has continued to grow and I’m delighted that the profession has quickly adapted itself to the growing world of ICT. The digital age has come to stay and we will be doing ourselves good by adapting our operations and practices to its guidelines.
“That is why the theme of this workshop is highly commended and the Lagos State House of Assembly remains ever committed to putting in place programmes such as this to enhance the practice of journalism.
“The advent of the social media has unfortunately brought about a new set of unscrupulous journalists who hide under the cover of the social media to publish false stories and even use such stories to extort money from people.”
Stressing that legal, medical and other professions have regulatory bodies, he added that “as professionals in this noble field, it is our duty to remain vigilant and expose those who, through their greed for money, will want to tarnish the image of this profession and its practitioners.
“It is an obvious fact that every profession has its own share of bad eggs and the journalism profession is not an exception.
“However, we will not only do our profession but also the entire world, the whole lot of good by exposing these bad eggs whose desire is to tarnish the image of the pen-pushing profession and its practitioners.”