abdulraheem
Smart Adeyemi got into the National Political Reform Conference, as President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). However, the issues he has become visibly identified with are the most divisive ones. He joined the south-south delegates to walk out of the conference; in his presentation, he became a self-appointed spokesman for Yoruba people of Kogi and Kwara states and was out there advocating the lunatic idea of a so-called OKEODDUA state for Yorubas in Kwara state. The media also reported that he was at the Ibadan meeting of South West Delegates on Monday this week, which gave support for a 25 percent derivation for the south-south. As if to underscore the controversy around his positions, he was a prominent guest at the birthday party organised for Ganiyu Adamu, head of the OPC, the other day. Now smart Adeyemi has the right to choose the company he keeps and he is entitled to his passions and the causes he chooses to support. However, as President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, his constituency includes many journalists who do not share his identification with the cut throats of the OPC and who do not accept that he can use representation of the union at the National Conference to support the dismemberment of Kwara and Kogi states and promoting the illusion of their merger with the South West. He has lived long enough in Ilorin to know that he insults our people through such hare-brained suggestions. But it is even more important to point out that as the leader of Nigerian journalists, he should represent the complexities found in journalism practice in the country at the conference, and not become the spokesman of a sectional and divisive agenda. We don’t pay our check off dues to abet an agenda that is not all-inclusive, Smart Adeyemi.
