North-east rebuild: Borno NUJ honours Dangote, defence ministry, others

By Sadiq Abubakar Maiduguri

Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Borno state council, has conferred Merit Awards on Dangote Foundation, Federal Ministry of Defence, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and three media organisations for their roles in supporting ongoing reconstruction in the North-east. Th e awards were in line with the theme of the Press Week: “Th e role of the media in post confl ict rebuilding of communities, livelihoods and safe re-settlement of victims in Northeast, Nigeria.”

Dressed in NUJ’s customised attires for the week, Governor Kashim Shettima and his deputy, Mamman Durkwa, presented the awards with NUJ NationalPresident, Abdulwaheed Odusile and the Borno state Chairman of the NUJ, Babasheik Haruna to the benefi ciaries. Described by participants as a landmark event, Minister of Defence, Brigadier General Mansur Dan-Ali, Chief Executive offi cer of Dangote Foundation, Zouera Youssofou, Odusile and representative of the UNHCR were in attendance to receive the NUJ Merit Awards.

Th ree media houses, Vanguard Newspapers, the Borno Radio Television and Daily Post online were honoured for dedicating highest news coverage to reconstruction of communities and livelihoods for the print, broadcast and online media categories.

“Using the reports and sound judgment of our members numbering over 200 resident in Borno state, the Dangote Foundation is winner of the NUJ Merit Award for making the highest private sector intervention on reconstruction of the Northeast from 2014 to August, 2017.

“From the International Community, we fi gured that diff erent organs of the UN and other partners are doing so much on humanitarian intervention. On the area of reconstruction of the North-east, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has so far made the highest foreign intervention. Th is makes the UNHCR a winner of the NUJ Merit Award. Before the award, there was a lecture titled, ” Reconstruction of communities and livelihoods in confl ict & post confl ict situation: Th e journey so far in North-east, Nigeria” while a Professor of Mass Communication, Danjuma Gambo made academic contribution on the role of journalists in post confl ict rebuilding of communities

Leave a Reply