A 7-day mourning period has been declared by the FCT Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, for its immediate past chairman, Comrade Chuks Ehirim, who died some days ago.
A joint statement by the Council Chairman, Comrade Paul Ella and Secretary of Council, Rafat Salami, disclosed that the mourning period began on June 19, 2016, and would end on Saturday, June 25, 2016, with a valedictory session.
The statement described late Comrade Ehirim as “a versatile journalist whose journalism career spanned over three decades”.
“The deceased would be fondly remembered as a fearless journalist who used his journalistic career to entrench democratic tenets and was a strong advocate of freedom, justice and equity.
“He would be remembered more importantly as a very detribalised Nigerian, who believed in the unity of the country and always put the country first”, the statement read in part.
As part of the activities for the mourning period, all journalists have been advised to sign the condolence register at the council’s secretariat in Utako and also wear a touch of black within the period.
Also, the union also urged its members on social media to “use his picture as their profile picture while comments on social media should go with the hashtag #RememberingChuksEhirim”.
“We request this as the union is planning a massive awareness campaign to launch a N100m education endowment fund for his children and institute a public lecture ‘The Chuks Ehirim Lecture Series’, to raise awareness on the pitiable working condition of journalists and the need for an institutional framework to protect journalists from enslavement, use and abuse of their intellectual prowess by shylock media owners; a situation which the late Comrade Chuks Ehirim was a victim,” the statement said.
The deceased died on June 16, 2016, which coincidentally was his 50th birthday. He was chairman of the NUJ FCT council between 2012 and 2015.
