NUJ President Blasts Sirawoo, Warns To Stop Parading Himself As SWAN President

By Ogundele Olanrewaju

President, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo has described the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports, Rivers State, Honour Sirawoo as unfit to lead the Sports Writer Association of Nigeria (SWAN)

Isiguzo in his reaction to a statement ascribed to Sirawoo explained that only a Sports writer can be a member or a president of SWAN. He added that Sirawoo is a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports Rivers State and as such unfit to be a president of a professional body like SWAN.

Isiguzo said being a Permanent Secretary disqualified to lead SWAN as it is against the SWAN statute. He then described him and his followers as SWANi Members.

“Honour Sirawo is my very good friend, he’s a Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports Rivers state. And, I believe that it is very clear that he’s not a sports writer, he is now administrator.

“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have expected anybody talking about him because we are relating very closely with Rivers state government and he’s an official of Rivers state government but because he has decided to dance naked, we also have to clear the air.

“I understand that Leadership newspaper honoured the serving governor of Rivers state, (Nyesom Wike) in Abuja. Expectedly, some officials of the state government had to come and celebrate with their governor that was also the opportunity he had to come and join that celebration but rather than concentrating on the celebrations that brought him to Abuja, he decided to meet with people like him because you must be a sports writer before you even become a member of SWAN, as we speak Sirawo is not a sports writer and is not a member of SWAN.

“Yes, he gathered a few people and went to Cooperate Affairs Commission (CAC) deceived them and got registered as Sports Writers Association of Nigeria incorporated and what that simply means is SWANi not SWAN.

“Some that aligned with him joined him, so, I believed he’s leading a group of people registered with CAMA and called themselves SWANI, SWAN simply means Sports Writers Association of Nigeria and sports writing is not a permanent abode for anybody. If you work with a media house and you are on the sports desk, then you belong to SWAN. Today people who are political editor are masquerading as SWAN member, for the fact that you covered sports 30 years ago does not make you a permanent member of SWAN. At a point, I was also a member of SWAN because I was deeply involved in sports writing but as we speak now I no longer belong to that desk and I cannot continue to parade as a member of SWAN. I want to challenge Sirawo, let him show me where he has written sports in the last 15 years, if he show me that, I will resign as NUJ president. He’s not a member of SWAN anybody he continue to deceive should better watch it.

“I read where he said he went to register SWAN for business purposes, let me tell you that SWAN has been operating account in the past even without registering with CAC. As we speak, SWAN Abuja has a plot of land, they didn’t get it by register with CAMA they’ve been operating SWAN since all these years until a business man from Ogoni found himself in the leadership position deceitfully to take over their leadership. He Concluded.