NJOMACS

The Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, as amended, recognized journalism as the fourth estate of the realm. The primus inter pares position given to this profession among others suggests the important role it plays in society. However, there has been noticeable movement of journalists out of the profession in Nigeria, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. This led to the need to identify and analyse underlying factors encouraging this exodus, otherwise known as occupational mobility. A total of 249 journalists were sampled from five randomly selected chapels out of the Twenty-One (21) chapels of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the FCT Chapter. Practicing journalists who participated in the study were drawn from Abuja Inquirer newspaper, Daar Communication, FRCN Network, Voice of Nigeria and also from a pool of journalists covering National Assembly, recognized as a chapel. The study was anchored on Abraham Maslow’s theory of needs. Questionnaire was used as data collection instrument, and findings from the study revealed that poor welfare package, which makes attainment of the five hierarchies of human needs developed by Abraham Maslow most likely to be unrealizable among most journalists as the motivation for career switch among journalists. The study recommended that media orgainsations should do more to make media industry attractive with good welfare packages.