BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
The Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE has appointed a successor to Funke Egbemode as president of the guild. He is Mustapha Isah. He replaces Egbemode following her appointment as the Commissioner for Information and Social Orientation in Osun State. The former president was on her second term in office when the appointment came. So, Isah is expected to serve out the remaining period, after which he could ask the mandate of his colleagues in the guild for the office.
The announcement was contained in a communique at the end of the meeting of the standing committee of the guild held at the Editors’ House in Ikeja, Lagos on Friday. The committee cites article 13 (4) of the constitution of the guild that enables the committee to constitute itself into an electoral college to feel a vacancy before the convention, where a fresh election would be conducted.
The release signed by Isah and Mary Atolagbe, guild secretary cautions the federal government against pursuing the controversial “sanitisation” of the social media , allegedly to curb fake news and hate speeches.
The guild insists that there are extant laws that can curb the menace, even as it said the government should check within as fake news often emanate from the rank of its officials. The NGE says rather than provide security agents the excuse to clamp down on the media, it should “build bridges and collaboration with the Nigerian media and promoters of social media.”
