Nigeria’s oldest newspaper, the Daily Times, did not appear on Friday as more than 1 000 workers protested the non-payment of their salaries and allowances over the past 15 months, workers and unions said.
”We insisted that they should not publish on Friday for their action to be effective. We want to assist the workers, including non-journalists, to achieve their goal,” said Funke Fadugba of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
One of the workers, who asked not to be named, said the non-payment of her salary for the past 15 months has frustrated her wedding plans.
Nigeria’s state-run privatisation agency recently sold off the newspaper group, which was established in 1926, to a private firm, Folio Communications, for 1,25-billion naira ($9,4-million).
Hundreds of workers of the Daily Times sealed off the entrance to the newspaper’s Lagos offices and demanded the agency pay the salaries owed them from before the sales.
Fadugba said that the NUJ will meet officials on Thursday in Abuja.
Folio Communications is expected fully to take over the running of the Daily Times before the end of this month.
The Daily Times group has gone though serious financial and managerial difficulties in the past 10 years, forcing it to close nine of the publications in its stable, leaving only three, including the flagship daily.
The paper is often referred to as a ”journalist factory” as the group has, since its heydays, trained some of the best-known reporters in the country. — Sapa-AFP