Governors and ministers are expected grace the foundationlaying ceremony for the multipurpose Editors’ Plaza owned by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Blueprint reports. Our correspondent gathered that the foundation stonelaying ceremony scheduled to hold on March 1, 2018, at the project site located in the Guzape District of Abuja, will also have in attendance former Governor of Akwa Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, as chairman of the event, while an industrialist and Chairman of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, is expected to perform the traditional ‘turning of the sod.’
A statement signed by NGE publicity secretary, Ken Ugbechi, yesterday also said the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, and his Information and Culture counterpart, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, were expected to grace the occasion.
Other dignitaries expected at the event are governors, heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), members of corporate Nigeria, the business community, media executives, and etcetera. “The journey of the proposed Editors’ Plaza started on April 10, 2014 with a fund-raiser in Abuja under the leadership of the then President of the Guild, Mr. Femi Adesina.
The goal was to raise funds to build a befitting secretariat for the Guild in Abuja to be named as Editors’ Plaza. It is worthy to note that in its over 55 years of existence, the Guild does not have a secretariat of its own. “Part of the money realised from the fund-raiser has been used to acquire a property in Ikeja area of Lagos state christened Editors’ House which functions as the Guild’s secretariat in Lagos.”
The statement quoted the President of the Guild, Mrs. Funke Egbemode, as saying that part of the proposedEditors’ Plaza in Abuja would serve as the Guild’s secretariat in Abuja, while the rest would be leased to the public as offices. “When completed, the multi-storey edifice, which sits on an expansive 5,600Sqm piece of land, will add to the vastly changing Abuja landscape,” she said.
Egbemode said the construction of the Editors’ Plaza “offers friends of the Guild, individuals and corporates, and all advocates and lovers of free press an opportunity to partner with Nigerian editors” whom she described as the “torchbearers of the nation’s democracy and bulwark against tyranny
