By Samuel Itsede
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) says the decision of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to set up a five-member committee to look into the recent crisis in the association is a welcome development.
Reacting to the decisions of the NUJ NEC which met in Lokoja on Wednesday, the SWAN National President, Ahmed Aigbona, said the intervention was necessary in order to put all related matters in the right perspective.
“The decision of the NUJ NEC to set up a committee to reconcile warring SWAN factions is not something we will go against.
“We actually view the intervention of the NUJ as necessary, being our mother union.
“Not only that, we have nothing to hide. We rather have an opportunity to prove oyr case, that the SWAN NEC which I lead is the authentic one,” he said.
Aigbona, in a press release signed by SWAN Secretary-General, Mike Oboh, stated that it was time the facts which led to the crisis were put in the right perspective for all right-thinking minds to judge.
“A lot of lies have been put in the public space in order to hide the facts that some people wanted to create a new body, different from what we have known since SWAN came into being in 1964.
“Not only that, some people wanted to make SWAN a place where the rules will not be respected, members will be subjected to degradation by a power-drunk fellow, and SWAN will not be there for its members in professional and welfare terms.
“Certainly, we are not going to take that. And that is what led to a majority of chairmen of the state chapters to take the step of daring powers that be then.
“It was difficult, but it was accomplished, leading to the emergence of the NEC which I lead and which is the authentic one.
“So, we will go before the NUJ to present the facts as they are, and we are hopeful that reason will prevail in the long run,” he said.
