A news magazine, ‘Abiacentric News’, which is expected to provide media partnership to deepen democracy in Abia, has been unveiled.
The magazine’s unveiling on Wednesday in Umuahia coincided with the one year anniversary of Dr Alex Otti as Governor of the state.
The Publisher, Dr Odo Ijere said the unveiling on 29th of May, was expected to compliment activities during the anniversary events as well as give it a good head-start to compete in the bustling media market place.
He said that the magazine is an initiative of Abia Infrastructure Mandate (AIM) with technical support from Abia Think Tank News.
According to him, AIM is a non partisan advocacy group formed by Abia professional elites across party lines.
Ijere, an engineer, said the print media outlet would offer everyone the opportunity to be part of the ongoing conversations concerning good governance in the state.
He explained that the magazine would provide the opportunity for diversity of Abia people to advance their differing opinions through articles and other submissions.
“The magazine is an idea that would expectedly provide necessary backup systems to the social media phalanx in the case of the unexpected happening,” he said.
The Chairman of the occasion, Chief Ray Nkemdirim, said that the magazine was timely, and commended the publisher for choosing to use the outlet to celebrate the good governance in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nkemdirim was represented by a renowned wrestling champion, Chief Osita Offor, popularly known as Ultimate Commander.
He said:”Before now, Abia used to be a mockery state because of bad leadership.
“But Gov. Alex Otti has changed our story because he adopted a transparent approach to lead the people of God’s Own State.
“Since the governor’s picture is on the front page of this magazine, people will take it serious because his face represents integrity and real hope.”
Unveiling the magazine, Mr Victor Ndukwe, Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Abia council, commended the publisher for the bold initiative.
“This magazine is like a historic book which we all need to read at every point in time to store events and ideas emanating from people and ourselves,” Ndukwe said.(NAN)
