The Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Felix Ajakaiye, has urged media practitioners to embrace developmental journalism and be positive in their reportage.
The religious leader, who described journalism as one of the noble professions in the country, stressed the need for journalists to be positive in their criticism, saying that this would bring more development and progress to the country.
Bishop Ajakaiye spoke on Wednesday in Ado-Ekiti when he received members of the executive of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Ekiti State Council, led by its Chairman, Comrade Kayode Babatuyi, who paid him a courtesy visit.
Describing Nigeria as a good country that he so much loved, the Catholic priest urged the people of the country to change their orientation by criticizing positively about developments in the country.
The Bishop thanked journalists in Ekiti State for what he described as their constant support for the government. He urged them to continue in the same vein and assured them that Nigeria, as a country, will soon be better for all to live in.
The Catholic priest later prayed for all members of the council and promised to take their grievances to the appropriate channels, assuring them of his continuous support for the union.
Earlier, the Chairman of Ekiti NUJ, Comrade Kayode Babatuyi, thanked the Bishop for his support for the union. He said the visit was to inform him of the various challenges confronting the union in the state.
Babatuyi said the Bishop, as a member of the union, had contributed immensely to the development of the union.
Comrade Babatuyi pleaded with the Bishop to use his good office to enlist the support of Governor Oyebanji in providing the union with a befitting press center and bus. According to the Chairman, the Ekiti State NUJ council is the only council without a press center and union bus.
The NUJ Chairman also announced a proposed media summit to be organized by the union later in April this year, where the Ekiti Catholic Bishop will deliver a lecture and present an award to him as part of his contributions to the development of the union.
Echoing the voice of the Chairman, the immediate past Chairman of the council, Comrade Rotimi Ojomoyela, lamented what he called the shortchanging of the union by successive governments in the state.
Ojomoyela appealed to the Bishop to use his exalted position to appeal to the Ekiti State Government to build a befitting secretariat for the council.
The visit was attended by the Chairperson of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, Ekiti State Council, Mrs. Adewumi Ademiju, and other members of the executive council, among others.