It is time to discard stereotypes against women as well as other limiting factors impeding the unraveling of their full potentials, National President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo has said.

Isiguzo said this during an interview with Kristina Reports on the sidelines of the 11th Triennial Convention and Elections of the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), which held from November 24 to 26, 2023, at the Maryam Babangida Center for Women Development, Abuja.

“Most of the stereotypes about women, I think it’s time for us to do away with them. Women are now very formidable; they are strong and doing exploits.”

He also congratulated Aisha Bura Ibrahim on her election as President of NAWOJ, asserting that her emergence represents a new dawn for the association, commending NAWOJ for remaining firm in its pursuit of the interest of women journalists in its 34 years of existence.

The NUJ President applauded NAWOJ for pulling a crowd of women journalists from across the country to its triennial conference, noting that it is a sign of its maturity in the practice, pointing out that “it simply means that this association has come of age and it’s doing very well”.

Also speaking in a chat with Kristina Reports, the re-elected Deputy National President of NAWOJ, Lilian Okonkwo said that NAWOJ is a platform for training and retraining of women journalists to ensure capacity building and to compete favourably within and outside the media ecology.

“We want to build a NAWOJ where the capacity of women journalists will be built within and outside the country.”

Speaking at the convention, Executive Director of the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH), Moji Makanjuola said that NAWOJ must carry out its role in national development as the fourth estate of the realm.

“This is a defining moment, for the fact that we have emerged with a structure, emerged with an office of our own, and looking forward to building our edifice.”

Also speaking, the outgoing President of NAWOJ, Ladi Bala noted that NAWOJ needs to answer the wake-up call to rise to the mandate of reaching out to the voiceless in the society, especially, on the issue of violence against women.

“We are the conscience of the society. So, it is a wake-up call to all of us for us to begin to lend our voices and to drive the conversation in a more robust, more effective way, so as to receive the right kind of response we need from members of the society.”

In a statement, Chairperson of NAWOJ in Rivers State, Susan Serekara-Nwikhana congratulated the new President of NAWOJ, Aisha Bura Ibrahim, Deputy National President, Lilian Ogabu-Okonkwo, and National Secretary, Wasilan Lada, as well as other elected national officers.

Describing their emergence as “a well-deserved victory”, she also congratulated the Vice President and Secretary, Zone F (South-South), Stella Macaulay, and Eunice Emeyazia, among others on their victory.