I became an editor of a newspaper (The Sunday Chronicle, a publication in the stable of the CRS Newspaper Corporation) on 1st of November, 1990. That is about 35 years ago. That is an awfully long time ago, about one third of an average person’s lifespan. I actually pray to live here on this planet for 120 years like my hero Moses, the deliverer of the Israelites who is reported to have lived for 120 and that when he died, his back was not bent, his eyesight did not become blurred neither did he lose some of his faculties as many other ordinary men and women do.
Because my elevation to become a captain in this first career of my life took place so long ago and in a non -digital era, I cannot now remember the critical details of some of my early foray in the ranks of the distinguished elite of the Nigeria media. I cannot remember which edition of ANEC I got inducted into the Guild and which one I got elected as deputy secretary under the secretaryship of Eluem Emeka Izeze and the Presidency of Mallam Garba Shehu. But by the edition which held at the NICON Noga Hilton Hotel in 1994, I was the one who took notes for the Minutes of that meeting.
Since then I have attended on and off every annual conference of the Guild. Each year, you see some lapses in organization ranging from registration, allocation of hotel rooms and in later years, transportation to project inspection sites or tourist sites for those who are adventurous and want to see some interesting sites in some of the states hosting the elite journalists.
Another weakness is chaotic and shameful lining up to eat food. In the past it used to be so chaotic. I feel so ahamed of my self and my colleagues when I see people who are very good at criticizing so many themselves conducting themselves in a disorderly manner. This weakness was not seen in ANEC 2024
Some coming to the convention unprepared it is a measure of the fact that members are maturing. I did not experience anyone coming to me fro financial assistance.
My pastor in the local assembly of the Living Church FHA Nyanya where I worshop in Abuja told us to declare that this years’s Shiloh( the annual gathering of the saints each year and the 2025 Christmas will be the best ever I have ever seen in my life and in the life of members of my family. Shiloh is still about a month away and Christmas also still a month a way. But the ANEC of this year is the best I have ever attended.
During the preparation, I told members of my family that there is a new determination to ensure that things go well. As a person I always feel ashamed when we do things that show that Nigeria is a broken country that needs to be fixed. When I mentioned this one of my perceptive sons told me that many things depend on leadership. If you have the right leadership things caan indeed be well planned and well executed to the benefit and delight of all involved. Thia is a new revelation.
There is hope for Nigeria, I declared to members of my family. When things are done in an oyiboic manner, I feel so proud of my country.
The credit for this achievement must go to Tunde Olusunle who from the beginning told the leadership that they should remember the good arrangement that was made in the ANEC that took place in Rivers State when attendees who registered where told before they took off to the venue where they will be accommodated. The leadership heard and did all they could to make sure people were not allowed to congregate in one hotel before they were distributed to various hotels. Thank you the leadership and the Standing Committee for making such preparation that they attendees were not treated like secondary school children but as respectable men and women who must be treated with dignity and honour.
The leadership also went out of their way to assist some mebers with their flight arrangements.
Thumb up every one for the majestic ANEC OF 2025. Let this become the norm that everyone tries to improve upon every year. A people whose profession is to point out the wrongs of others should try every means to be above board.
The papers were something else. The one presentedthe next good thing was the conference bags. It was not in short supply at all. Perhaps this I because members had a deadline for registration which made it possible for the organisers to know exactly how many members were coming for adequate arrangement to be made for some of these things. In the past some may not get this essential memento which some have been preserving in their closets perhaps to show to their grandchildren their exploits in this profession which they so loved and whose events they endeavoured to attend all or as many as they could make it.
Abuja ANEC 2025 started on an interesting libidinal note when in the course of the preparation towards the end of October, some obviously younger and mischievous members of this mostly senior citizens’ club were wondering to the Exco members whether attendees were going to be given mere good accommodation where they will be ‘’sleeping well’’ or will it be ‘lodging’ where they will be ‘’sleeping well-well-well’’? this no doubt thrilling debate was not pursued with the enthusiasm or the greater details which such a debate deserves or to a logical conclusion because as I said earlier, the body of senior journalists consists mostly of grand fatherly and approaching grandfatherly elements who realized that their contribution to such a debate would be read by some of their perceptive children who will get the drift of the salacious debate.
I, on my part nearly fell deeply into the debate but realizing my priestly calling, I checked myself and left off the debate. Thank God for little mercies.
Well, in my own hotel somewhere in Utako District of Abuja, I saw with my two naked eyes three colleagues whose names shall not be mentioned here who live within Abuja and environs who took steps independent of the Exco members to get themselves correctly’ lodged’. My scouts in the other five hotels arranged for members have reported to me that they saw many others who did not just get accommodated, they ensured that they slept well-well-well.
Whether attendees of the Abuja ANEC 2025 slept well or slept well-well-well as some of the jolly rascals fantasied they hoped to do, this year’s version of ANEC was one that will not be easily forgotten. It was thrilling as many of the weaknesses preset in many other ANECs before this one. It is the conviction of most of us that a minimum standard of organization was set in Abuja ANEC. The prayer now is that everyone involved should get ready as ANEC 2026 is set to move to… to make that one better that this Abuja one. Senior journalists the likes of editors need to enjoy their lives. They have given so much of themselves and their talents and skills in the service of this nation. They do deserve drab treatment from anyone least of of all from themselves or those among them who are charged with the responsibility of providing fro their welfare or well being.
Idang Alibi worked with the CRS Newspaper Corporation, the Daily Times, Daily Trust and many other media organisations in the country.
