Certainly, this is not the best of time for the media industry in Nigeria, considering the numerous challenges confronting some organisations and their staff, UMAR BAYO ABDULWAHAB writes

At a time when media workers are still nursing the wounds inflicted on them thorough various attacks on some media houses by the Boko Haram sect, during which lives were lost and property worth millions of naira destroyed, they are being subjected to another round of torture and hardship by their employers.

From private to public sector, the situation of media organisations in recent times is assuming a worrisome and dangerous dimension.

The case of the closure of Newswatch Magazine, The Triumph Newspapers in Kano and now mass deployment of staff of state owned media houses in Kwara state most of whom were being owned three month salary areas, have continued to raise some unanswered questions about the fate of journalists in the state and the country as a whole.

While the dust raised by the closure of The Triumph is yet to settle, the Kwara state government penultimate Friday carried out a mass deployment of staffers of the state Printing and Publishing Corporation (KWPPC), publishers of The Herald Newspapers and The Herald on Sunday, the State Broadcasting Corporation (Radio Kwara) and the state Television Authority, (KWTV) with 106 editorial and non editorial staff affected in the exercise.

Of all the media outfits, The Herald was the worst hit with 53 workers deployed to ministries of Information and Education, 32 of them from the editorial department.

The exercise which started like a rumour, was believed to be a calculated attempt by the government to prevent workers of The Herald in particular, from embarking on a planned industrial action which would have come up on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

The workers under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, (NUJ) and NUPPROW, The Herald chapters, have jointly proposed a strike to press home their demands including the non-payment of their three-month salary areas after exploring all legitimate means.

But, before the workers could execute their plan, the government moved a step ahead of them by releasing letters of redeployment directing the affected workers to resume to their various duty posts immediately.

Among those affected in the exercise, were some top editorial staff of the newspapers with many years of experience and relevant qualifications on the job, executive members of the NUJ and the NUPPROW chairman himself.

To make the situation worse, some of the affected staffers Blueprint gathered, had their steps reversed downwards.

But the state government described the exercise as "right-sizing" of its workforce in the affected parastatal organisations.

The exercise, announced by the Office of the Head of Service, Alhaji Dabarako Mohammed through a letter dated October 30,2012, is part of efforts by the state government to right-size the staff of the organizations with a view to reinvigorating their operations.

In the letter addressed to the state commissioner for Information and Communications, Prince Tunji Moronfoye, the HOS said Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has approved the deployments to take immediate effect.

The government had claimed that the affected workers were round pegs in a square hole causing redundances in the system and over-bloated workforce.

It alleged that politicians used their influences to plant their people in the organisations without relevant qualifications to work in the media houses, a development which according to the government was responsible for the perceived inefficiency and the hard times the workers are currently going through.

The government said it took the step to rescue the media organizations from a bloated workforce and unbearable payroll burden that have affected capacity to pay salaries as and when due and to run stable operations.

The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Prince Tunji Moronfoye who defended the government's action said it was part of normal civil service norm.

He dismissed insinuations that the government is broke and could not pay its workers promptly saying "whatever anybody is saying we are not broke."

Moronfoye had appeared before members of the state House of Assembly, on a special session tagged "question time," where he was quizzed about the happenings in the state-owned media houses under his ministry' supervision.

He told the lawmakers that 50% of those in The Herald did not fit into the system.

Following the deployment, Moronfoye said government has placed a two-year embargo on employment into the state-owned information outfits.

But the plights of The Herald workers seem to have started before the latest deployment. In 2009, the state government ejected the workers from its permanent site along new Yidi Road, Ilorin and turned the premises to a Diagnostic Centre without providing another befitting office to them.

Instead, they were asked to return to their former sites along Offa road which was occupied by the state printing press thereby becoming tenants in the premises where most reporters and editors hang under trees due to lack of office accommodation.

All efforts and appeal to let government see reason why the newspaper outfit should not be moved from that site proved abortive and that marked the beginning of the major dwindling fortune of the corporation in recent times.

In the past, The Nigerian Herald as it was called during the days of the late Azeez Herald of the blessed memory was one of the outstanding newspapers in the country.

The paper today, had not only produced journalists who have made their marks on the sand of time, it has also over the years, remained a training ground for many successful journalists in the country.

That, this school of Journalism is gradually dying is the major concern of who knows the history and impact which this formidable medium had made in our society.

Reacting to the development, the Kwara state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, in a statement jointly issued by its Chairman, Comrade Biodun Abdulkkareem and Secretary, Comrade Bisi Adedayo, described the exercise as "absurd and lopsided" calling on the government to reverse the exercise.

Part of the statement reads: "The event of recent times as it relates to the redeployment of members of our union working in the state-owned media organizations to the Ministry of Information & Communication, to say the least, is absurd and lopsided.

"While the Union commended government for not resorting to retrenchment of any media worker in the state, the redeployment exercises carried out by the committee saddled with the responsibility through the office of the Head of Service, to our minds, did not follow due process.

"Although, the government reserves the right to "right size" its work force, it ought to have carried out the exercise with caution, more so when experienced journalists working in the state media are involved.

"A situation where the most productive and experienced hands in the production processes were transferred to the parent ministry is not acceptable to the union.

"It is our contention that these thoroughbred media practitioners deployed to the ministry, will not only be relegated to the background, but will be redundant at their new place of assignments.

"Without prejudice to the 'good intention' of government, it is only expected that the committee will redeploy the 'dead woods' who contribute little or nothing to the production processes.

"The Union also observed with dismay that nothing was said or done on the four-month salary arrears owed the staffers of the Kwara State Publishing & Printing Corporation (KPPC), publishers of The Herald titles as well as the non-implementation of the new national minimum wage to the staff of Kwara Television Service as enjoyed by all public servants in the federation today.

"It would be recalled that the current redeployment exercise was consequent upon the inability of some affected media organizations to pay the salaries of their workers as at when due, owing to over staffing.

"The Union therefore, called on Alhaji AbdulFatah Ahmed-led government through the Head of Service's committee, to reverse this unpopular action with a view to ensuring the continued cordial relationship between the Union and government.

"Instead, the committee should identify the idle hands that are not contributing anything meaningful to the production processes for such redeployment exercise.

"We equally commend the present administration in the State for the prompt release of additional funds for the completion of the new Press Centre under construction," the statement urged.

Commenting on the issue, an experienced journalist who hails from the state said, while one will want to appreciate government's move to reinvigorate its information outfits as it claimed, it should however, exercise caution in doing so in view of the unpalatable consequences that may create.