ACJA Delegation Visits Nigeria’s Leadership Newspaper

In May 2024, a delegation from the official All-China Journalists Association (中華全國新聞工作者協會), or ACJA, a Chinese Communist Party-led professional association that serves a key role in implementing press control policies, visited the Abuja head office of Leadership Group Limited, publisher of the Nigerian daily Leadership. The delegation was led by ACJA Executive Secretary Wu Xu (吳旭) and accompanied by Christopher Isiguzo, president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, which had signed a memorandum with the ACJA earlier that day. According to the paper’s own report, Isiguzo said the two unions sought the group’s collaboration because of “the deep relationship China enjoys” with the paper. Wu praised Leadership on its 20th anniversary and invited its staff to China. Managing Editor Raliat Ahmed-Yusuf thanked the Chinese government for collaboration conducted through its embassy in Nigeria. She said this included publishing content from China across all of the group’s titles and platforms, with dedicated features in Leadership Hausa titled “Daga Sin” and “Babban Bango” (“The Great Wall”). She said the arrangement had helped promote Chinese culture and showcase China’s infrastructure development and investments in Nigeria.