Lagos
— President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the re-issuance of
Presidential Villa Press Pass to Deutsche Welle correspondent, Ubale
Musa, who was expelled from the villa by the administration of former
President Goodluck Jonathan.
While presenting
the reissued Villa Press Pass to Musa at the Presidential Villa, Abuja,
Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and
Publicity, disclosed that the re-accreditation of Musa as a State House
correspondent was in keeping with Buhari's commitment to correct the
wrongs of the past.
He said, "Part of
the change promised by President Buhari is correcting things that were
wrongly done before. Mr. Ubale Musa's accreditation was wrongly
withdrawn. To redress the wrong done to him by the withdrawal, we have
returned his Villa Press Pass to him so that he can continue his work
without hindrance."
After receiving his
reissued Villa Press Pass, Musa thanked the President and his media
team for restoring his accreditation; promising that he would continue
to do his work as a State House correspondent objectively,
professionally and with due regards to the ethics of journalism.
It would be
recalled that Musa was expelled in the last days of Jonathan's
administration for asking visiting Chadian President, Idris Derby, a
question the ex-President and his handlers considered to be
embarrassing.
Commending Buhari
for recalling the expelled journalist, the Nigeria Union of Journalists
(NUJ), in a statement by its National Secretary, Shuaibu Leman,
described the restoration of Musa's accreditation as a commitment of the
present administration towards press freedom and openness in
government's affairs.
According to the
union, the development would avail the citizens an opportunity to
understand the efforts of the government on national issues and would
clear doubt and speculation.
The statement which
was released on Tuesday read, "The media will support the Buhari
administration's commitment to sustainable growth of the Nigerian
economy, through fair and unbiased decisions on key economic policies
and the fight against corruption and insecurity. We commend this
heart-warming decision."
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