By Israel Afolabi
Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Najeem Salaam has said that it is insolent to insinuate that Senator Iyiola Omisore is being used by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government to destabilise the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to a statement by his Press Secretary, Goke Butika on Wednesday, Salaam said Omisore is matured enough in politics to decide what is good for him.
Salaam, while interacting with journalists at the maiden memorial lecture in honour of late Ademola Ojo, a retired broadcaster from Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), said it was a conspiracy theory fabricated to bring the governing APC into Omisore’s battle in the PDP, asserting that the Ife born politician has not indicated that he is leaving his party for APC.
He said, “With due respect to Senator Omisore, he is a matured politician and he has been around for a long time in the business of politics. So, if he is interested in crossing over to the APC, he can do it without being induced or prompted and as a Nigerian, he enjoys freedom of association as enshrined in the constitution; if he is so desired to join APC, he could be welcomed as long as he is qualified to be a member, but up till now, he has not informed anyone that he has left PDP.”
In his lecture titled: “We are all victims of occupational hazard”, Salaam observed that the society has not done enough to encourage safety rules in all places of work across board, saying that the rot began with politics and the situation could change for better if retired journalists partake in politics with aim of unleashing their experiences for better society.
“I used to know that journalists and lawyers dominated political landscape in the glorious past, but the departure of journalists, especially the retired ones now from politics has diminished the political engagement and I asked all our Veteran journalists to join politics not as bystanders but as gladiators so that their wealth of experience could be brought to bear in the development of our society and evolution of new thinking, it would be a plus if they can transmute from veteran journalists to political strategists”, Salaam asserted.
The Speaker further tasked Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) to apply strict regulatory exercise into the recruitment of journalists, saying, failure to do that would make journalism all comers’ affairs, noting that free entry into the profession may compromise “believability” which he described as unique selling proportion.
