Rivers Pioneer NUJ Chairman Salutes National Network On Successful Anniversary Celebration
As the management and staff of National Network newspaper basks in the euphoria of its successful 18th anniversary celebration at the Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt on Friday, November 11, 2022, messages of goodwill have continued to pour in from individuals and corporate organizations.
The latest in the stream of felicitations came from the pioneer Chairman of the Rivers State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chief (Hon) Wofuru Ogazile Okparaolu.
Okparaolu, now a traditional ruler and Owhoreli III in Ndele Community, Emohua Local Government Area, in his letter to the Publisher of the paper, Pastor Jerry Needam expressed delight that National Network has in the past 18 years, made appreciable impact in the media landscape.
“From the beginning of the age of information, magazines and newspapers have provided adequate forum for carrying on the interior dialogue of every society.
“If ever the universe should reach a point where the clash of ideas comes to an end, where debate disappears, where everybody agrees with everybody else on everything, then we are finished as humanity”, he posited.
The first ever ‘Number one journalist’ in Rivers State said that from his professional standpoint, National Network as a leading newspaper in the state has shown to all and sundry, that “an open society grows or withers according to the power of its ideas and to the vitality of its interior dialogue”.
While praying that the paper would continue to sustain its mandate of informing, educating and entertaining the public with integrity of facts, the veteran journalist added that cogency of comment and the variety of expression which will continue to sustain the faith of Nigerians in unlimited freedom of inquiry and expression should always be its watchword.
