The Abuja Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists has declared seven-day mourning for its immediate past chairman, Chuks Ehirim, who died on June 16.
This is contained in a statement issued on Sunday and signed by Chairman of the council Paul Abechi.
The council noted that the late Ehirim, who was chairman of the NUJ FCT council between 2012 and 2015, was a versatile journalist whose journalism career spanned over three decades.
“The deceased will 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 will be remembered more importantly as a much detribalised Nigerian, who believed in the unity of the country and always put the country first,” the council said.
It said as part of the activities for the mourning, all journalists are advised to come to the council’s secretariat in Utako to sign the condolence register.
“Colleagues on social media are encouraged 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 N100 million Education Endowment Fund for his children and institute a public lecture to be entitled “The Chuks Ehirim Lecture Series.”
“This is to raise awareness on the pitiable working condition of journalists and the need for an institutional framework to protect journalists from enslavement, and abuse of their intellectual prowess by shylock media owners,” the council added.
The council said the seven-day of mourning would terminate at the special valedictory congress of the council scheduled for June 25.
It reminded members of the union that this announcement should also serve as invitation for them to attend the congress which would take place at the Nugget Hotel, Utako, Abuja.
