I will start by hailing you all for the patience and candour you have demonstrated in the fight against COVID-19, this generation’s biggest health trial.
Our nation has recorded over 6,000 cases of the virus and no less than 192 people have died as a result of complications arising from the virus whose roots are firmly rooted in Wuhan, China.
The pandemic has shown the weaknesses of our health systems and we have had to be scampering to build facilities to care for patients.
We have also had to be converting structures such as hotels and event centres into testing and treatment centres.
I am happy to report that our health care system is now better equipped to detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every person who came in contact with a positive case.
Like the economies of many nations which are struggling as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, ours has not been an exception.
As a matter of fact, ours have been worst hit because the pandemic came at a time when the price of oil plummeted to an all-time low.
The Coronavirus blows on our economy have seen jobs either lost or at stake. Medium and small scale business owners are in trouble. Thousands of workers are not sure of their salaries for this month after their employers struggled with April bills.
The media, a major front liner in the fight against the pandemic, has fared badly in the face of the debilitating blows from COVID-19.
The administration believes that without the media our nation’s struggle for Independence from the British colonial masters would have taken a different turn.
The nationalistic zeal of our heroes past such as Hebert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo was given expression by journalism and we have journalism to thank for being free from imperialists.
Without the media, the government would have found it difficult to disseminate information regarding our management of the pandemic.
There would have been no way the people would have known about the guidelines put in place by the Presidential Task Force for the management of the disease.
The media in Nigeria have for years been struggling with not a few on some form of ventilator as if afflicted by COVID-19. For the majority, salaries are either not paid or terribly delayed. There are times journalists go for months without pay.
Only a few publishers constantly pay what can truly be described as a take-home package. The majority do not pay well and sadly, they struggle to pay these peanuts.
No thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, which has made us strangers in this world we wrongly assumed we knew like the back of our palm, things have gone worse for the media. Even the best of them have had to make adjustments with terrible impacts on employees.
Coronavirus has plummeted sales and advertising has dropped. Newspapers have had no choice but to cut pagination to 32. Print-runs have also been reduced because circulation and marketing have been affected by the restrictions caused by the pandemic.
I fear a post-pandemic era for this industry which fought for and got us our Independence from the British colonial masters.
To cushion the effect of the COVID-19 blows on the media, I have directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to immediately work out a stimulus package for the media.
We cannot afford to let the media die as a result of COVID-19. We will all live to regret it if this happens and our country will be the worst for it.
A country without a strong media that will hold the government to the highest standard of accountability is dead and waiting to be buried.
Our government has also secured insurance scheme for reporters who cover the daily briefings of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. At this point, I must commend the insurance sector for providing this support within a short period of time.
Our security agencies must continue to ensure that journalists are given the freedom to move around during this period as they are exempted from all forms of restrictions.
I want to assure the media that your safety and security remain our primary concern, especially in these difficult and uncertain times.
We value you and will do our utmost best to see that you continue to play your role as the Fourth Estate of the Realm as enshrined in our statute.
Our administration has equally directed the CBN to get banks to restructure loans to longer tenors for all media organisations whose businesses are adversely impacted by COVID-19.
Part of the ideas being mulled includes but not limited to: Suspension of repayment of such loans for one year to give the media ample financing room to pay salaries; and debt forgiveness for loans less than N10 million.
Our assistance to the media becomes more urgent because we are cognisant of the fact that Nigeria is not ready for the full opening of the economy.
In the next few days, the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO) and the CBN will be meeting to work out the plans, which, in the long run, will give us a media we will all be proud of.
After rendering assistance to the media, our administration will criminalise non-payment of salaries by publishers. Publishers found guilty may have their properties confiscated and sold to offset the workers’ salaries.
We will continue to rely on science, lessons from other parts of the world and verifiable date to wage the war against the pandemic so that we can return our world to what we know.
The current one is a stranger and we must do all in our capacity to get rid of it. It is not something we should get used to; it is something we should fight with all our might and defeat quickly.
The light shone by Henry Townsend’s Iwe Iroyin must not be allowed to die. The glow must continue.
I thank you all for listening. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria and protect the media.
Parting Shot: If only this dream can turn to reality, the hullabaloo in the media will die a natural death.
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