Plateau NUJ Correspondents Elect New Chairman After Months Of Leadership Impasse

The Correspondent of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Mrs Dorcas Gwani, has emerged the chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Plateau State Council. She won a fresh election held to resolve a month-long leadership crisis in the chapel.

Gwani polled 25 votes to defeat Douglas Francis of Arise Television, who scored nine votes in the election held at the NUJ Secretariat in Jos yesterday.

Omolola Bello of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) was returned unopposed.

The election, conducted by the NUJ National Secretariat through Zone D, followed a protracted dispute over an earlier electoral process that led to competing claims to the chapel’s leadership.

The crisis began after the Credentials Committee constituted for the election was disbanded following disagreements over the electoral process.

A second committee was subsequently constituted, but its members later resigned amid allegations of interference in the election’s conduct.

The development left Mr Francis as the only remaining contestant shortly before the outgoing executives’ tenure expired on 27 July.

After the tenure expired, the Plateau State NUJ Council constituted a three-member caretaker committee comprising former chairmen of the Correspondents’ Chapel — Tongnan Bawa, Yemi Kosoko and Isaac Shobayo — to oversee the chapel’s affairs and organise a fresh election.

The caretaker committee later announced an election timetable, but three days before the scheduled poll, it inaugurated Mr Francis as chairman, John Farinola as vice chairman, and Comfort Pius as treasurer.

The development sparked a fresh controversy, with 32 of the chapel’s 48 registered members rejecting the purported inauguration as unconstitutional.

In a petition to the NUJ National President, Alhassan Yahaya, the members alleged that the officials had been inaugurated without a valid election and called on the national secretariat to take over the process and conduct a credible, constitutionally compliant election.

The National Secretariat subsequently ordered a stay of action on the dispute and directed the parties to refrain from further action or public comment on the matter pending intervention by the NUJ Zone D leadership.

The fresh election was conducted as part of efforts to resolve the dispute and restore substantive leadership to the chapel.

Patience Aliyu, who served on the Credentials Committee for the exercise, formally announced the results at the NUJ Secretariat in Jos.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Gwani thanked the electoral committee and members of the chapel for participating in the election.

She pledged to unite members and urged them to put the disagreements that characterised the previous electoral process behind them.

“We have to put our differences behind us and work together,” Ms Gwani said, stressing the need for members to strengthen the chapel and promote the welfare and professional interests of journalists in Plateau State.

She said her administration would chart a new course for the chapel and work with members to advance its collective interests.

The outcome brings to a close, at least electorally, months of uncertainty over the leadership of one of the NUJ’s key chapels in Plateau State.

The NUJ national membership record lists 38 members of the Plateau Correspondents’ Chapel.