NUJ launches insurance scheme for members

National president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Garba Mohammed has disclosed that personal insurance scheme for practising journalists has kicked off throughout the country.

The insurance scheme, which has been dragging for long, will now be implemented to serve as a boost to the welfare of members.

Addressing newsmen in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, shortly after the burial of one of the three victims of the crash at Osu, Osun State, Tunde Oluwanike of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Ibadan Network Station, said “we have written formally to the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria and other relevant bodies notifying them of the need to get all practising journalists insured.”

According to him, only one of the victims was insured, and this issue should therefore be taken serious by all our employers, as we have made them know that this is very compulsory.

The national council of the union, he pointed out, will in the next one month constitute a five-man board of trustees to manage an endowment fund for the families of three members of the union that died in the August 2.2013 auto crash. Thirteen of them were involved in accident while three died, 10 sustained varying degree of injuries’

“This is going to be a test case. Some of the children of the deceased are very young, while others are in private university. This should be done in good time and it is not going to be later than one month,” Mohammed said.

Flanked by Shuaib Leman (national secretary), Rotimi Obamuwagun (deputy national president), Waheed Odusile (national ex-officio), Gbenga Onayiga (leader in NUJ), council chairmen from South West states and Kogi, Mohammed disclosed that the national executive had met with many stakeholders and had concluded plans to establish the endowment fund for the families of the deceased.

He was therefore optimistic that “something reasonable would be generated through publicity of the endowment. The NUJ boss, however, said that “certain percentage of the fund would be given to the families of the victims, while other part will be kept for the future needs of any of the practising members of the union, lest we be caught unawares anymore.”

He added that none of the national executive council would be part of the five-man board of trustees, saying “none of us is going to be signatory to the account. Chairmen of the affected states will be members of the committee, and I believe this will add to our credibility as members of the union.”

By: REMI FEYISIPO