Plans to revive Press Clubs in Schools are underway as the Rivers State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) plans to provide both training and financial support to the body across the state.
State Chairman of the NUJ, Comrade Paul Bazia Nsanee, while playing host to the new executives of the Rivers State Schools Press Club at the NUJ secretariat in Port Harcourt, said the union is ready to provide capacity training, motivation, including other forms of support within its financial capacity.
He expressed happiness that young secondary school students were still interested in a nursing career in writing, media, and journalism.
“The NUJ is ready to support you to make your group grow. And among the requests made, we will do what we can within our lean resources, especially in capacity building of young minds,” he declared.
Comrade Bazia described the press clubs as the budding arm of the NUJ that required nurturing and continued support, while urging them not to relent as future players in the media industry.
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Earlier, in his remarks, State Coordinator Tombari Williams said the group had been in existence for the past 35 years and needed to be strengthened to attract more membership.
On his part, the 25th President of the club in the state, Victor Dominic, stated that the visit was part of familiarisation with the new NUJ exco, and also to inform it of its challenges.
Among the current challenges are poor membership, funding, and office space for the club activities.
Dominic said among the five zones of the press clubs in Rivers State, only a few located in Port Harcourt and its environs are active, while the one at ONELGA is almost comatose due to funding and support.
He therefore enlisted the support of the state NUJ to help the club in providing the needed support to make the club active.
Also speaking, the newly elected President of Press Club in the state, Nwadike Success, said the vision of the new executives is to create interest and boost membership in schools.
” We want Press Clubs to go higher and to improve students’ interests in writing”, she added.
