By Mohammed Haruna
By now the reader may have heard of the Council of State’s approval about four weeks ago of my nomination, along with five others, by President Muhammadu Buhari to serve as INEC national commissioners. This was to complete the commission’s full compliment of 13 national commissioners, including the chairman, as opposed to the current seven.
Last week, news came that our names have been forwarded to the Senate for approval. Hopefully we will get its nod this month after which we will be sworn in by the President to assume office.
Several readers have since sent me texts asking if this means an end to my column. Only God can answer that. But what is certain is that there will be a five-year break in transmission between my readers and I as long as I am in INEC; you can’t be a public servant and pundit at the same time.
Indeed I have decided to anticipate Senate’s approval by making today my last appearance until, God permitting, my tenure ends successfully five years hence. Only then can I tell whether I can resume transmission or not.
As a somewhat valedictory column I have decided to reproduce an edited version of a chapter I contributed to a collection of essays published eleven years ago by Diamond Publications Ltd, publishers of Media Review magazine, and edited by journalism veteran, Lanre Idowu. The collection, “Voices from Within: Essays on Nigerian Journalism in Honour of Sam Amuka,” was in celebration of the 70th birthday of Amuka, publisher of Vanguard and one of Nigerian journalism’s enduring and genuine icons.