Journalists have been enjoined not to be complacent in their pursuit of excellence.
Chief Executive Officer of Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, Motunrayo Alaka gave the admonition at the January fellowship of Journalists For Christ (JFC) in Lagos at the weekend.
Alaka who spoke at the fellowship with the theme, ‘Pursuit of Excellence in Media Practice’, relayed how her upbringing later aided her career growth.
She also told participants to appreciate the support of family and friends which are important in career growth.
“When you are building a career, you need a support system of family and friends who believe in you,” she said.
Alaka also encouraged Christian journalists to beware of complacency in the course of their career. According to her, in the quest to being good Christians, journalists must know when complacency creeps in as contentment.
“Be careful as a Christian when contentment becomes complacence,” she said, enjoining journalists to avoid comfort zones in their pursuit of excellence.
She asked journalists to seek to develop a mind of excellence and approach every assignment with a sense of duty.
Reading earlier from Ecclesiastes 9:10, Alaka who attended Baptist Girls College, Idi Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun State, said, “As Christians, our first responsibility is to God. Whatever we do, we should do it well, it does not matter if we were paid or not. What we should look at as our guiding principle is that we are rendering service unto God and He is the one who pays us ultimately and not our employers.
“The Christian who is a professional must get to the point that money will not be the basis of service. Our motivation should be the desire to impart our society because it is only God who can pay us. Your organisation can owe you but God will never owe you. That has helped me over the years.,” she said.
Meanwhile, Alaka did not fail to balance the issue of work and renumeration when participants took turn to ask questions during the interactive session.
“I grew up serving, we are wired differently. It is true that older people do take advantage of younger people, that is why in our organisation we give people stipends for volunteering,” she said.
Talking about her upbringing at the family and church levels, she explained how she learnt service and volunteering at her early years which has always been her asset. She however encouraged journalists to volunteer when there is such opportunity.
President of Journalists For Christ, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin at the end of the presentation appreciated Alaka for an inspiring presentation.
