U.S. Based African Journalists In Nigeria To Watch Vote

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News, Nigeria 2015 Election Monday, January 12th, 2015

A delegation of journalists from the US-based National Association of African Journalists (NAAJ), who are concerned about a successful democratic transition and the entrenchment of democratic principles, has arrived in Nigeria for the national elections scheduled for February 14 and 28,” the group said Wednesday in an announcement.

Members of the 10-year-old organization will be in Nigeria throughout the elections, and also plan to conduct training sessions for Nigerian Journalists covering the elections.

‘The Nigerian elections are significant in many areas, especially with many people within and outside Nigeria concerned about transparency of the exercise in Africa’s largest democracy and the security of the country in the face of relentless terrorist attacks by Boko Haram,’ Eyobong Ita, NAAJ founding president and former two-term vice president/print of the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists said Wednesday after arriving in Lagos.

“We will focus on the transparency of the process and the freedom and fairness of the Nigerian press covering these elections.”

Ita, a Nigerian-born former Assistant City Editor at Cox-owned Springfield News-Sun in Ohio, is joined by Ben Edokpayi, former editor of The Dixon (Calif.) Tribune and Oladimeji Abitogun, editor-in-chief of sharpedgenews.com.

The final batch will join the NAAJ team about a week before the elections.

Source: Washington post