Head of News, Silverbird TV and Rhythm FM, Mr. Mustapha Isah has been elected as the Acting President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE).
Isah was until his election Vice President (West).
He was elected at the standing committee meeting of the Guild held on Friday, November 8, 2019, at Editors’ house, Ikeja, Lagos-State according to the communique signed by Isah and General Secretary, Mary Atolagbe.
His election was based on Article 13(4) of the NGE Constitution which empowers the Standing Committee to constitute itself into an Electoral College to replace the former President, Mrs Funke Egbemode following her appointment and acceptance of the offer as Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation in Osun State.
The communique stated that the Standing Committee discussed the state of the nation and the media and took particular note of the ongoing plans by the Federal Government of Nigeria to ‘sanitise’ the Social Media space and thereby resolved as follows:
It urged the Federal Government to rescind the decision to regulate the social media, noting that such measure is in clear contravention of Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which guarantees every Nigerian citizen the right to “freedom of expression, including the right to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”
The Guild reminded the Federal Government of the dire consequences of similar attempts in the past to gag freedom of speech, as such initiatives were usually misconstrued by security agents and some public officials to harass, arrest and in most cases, illegally detain journalists and other Nigerians for holding their opinions.
Isah is a graduate of History from Bendel State University, now Ambrose Alli University. He started his journalism career with the defunct Tempo Magazine during the military years.
