Delta Journalists at Reuters, commend Uduaghan for capacity building Officials of the foremost world’s news agency, Thomas Reuters received journalists practising in Delta State with a warm welcome, even as the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) singled out the Delta State Government for commendation for their interest in uplifting the journalism profession through capacity building for journalists in furtherance of the government’s human capital development agenda for the people. The commendation came at a brief ceremony attended by the Honourable commissioner for information, Chike Ogeah esq. , Kelen Bertern, training co-ordinator, Mrs. Melanie Cheary and Andrew Gray, consultant trainers for Reuters, and Sir Austin Mowa, permanent secretary and team leader. At the event that preceded the commencement of the training for the select journalists from various media organisations that are practicing in Delta state, and who are being sponsored for the programme by the State government State NuJ Chairman, Comrade Nobert Chiazor, on behalf of the National President Comrade Mohammed Garba and the journalists praised Governor Uduaghan for the novel initiative to sponsor journalists for the training to sharpen their professional skills and enhance their work out put. He said: “We want to express our profound gratitude to the governor of Delta state, His excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan as well as the Honourable commissioner for Information for this. This actually is the second of this training. Like the commissioner said, we were here last year, and another batch that is about the best in journalism in Delta State is here again. I am happy over what the commissioner said that it has become a yearly routine event. Hopefully, by next year, we will do it again. We are very, very excited about it because we believe that journalists are the conscience of society. And as watch dogs of society they actually have a lot to give to the society. And we are coming again with the idea and fact about Nigeria being Africa’s biggest nation, the most populous nation in Africa. So the rest of Africa looks up to Nigeria for direction as regards politics, good governance and all that. And journalists are at the very core of the future of Africa. So we are happy that the State government is taking this initiative which is the first of its kind in Nigeria, not just in Delta State. It is the first time a government is sending journalists out in large number. It has never happened before. For us in Delta State it is a very novel thing. And we want to express our profound gratitude to the governor of Delta State, His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.” Chiazor promised that journalists will continue with their tradition of robust engagement with government as in respect of projecting , not just what government wants to do but also the wishes and aspirations of Deltans. The Information commissioner, Chike Ogeah, had while flagging of the training called attention to the fact that the training is an initiative of Delta State in capacity building. He said: “The development agenda of the State is three pronged: human capital, infrastructural development, and of course, we have the area of peace and security. Because non of those two others will be able to happen without an enabling environment of peace and calm.” Ogeah explained that the basic challenge in Nigeria is unemployment; a lot of youths are being produced, among which are graduates and non graduates of tertiary institutions, including those that cannot even make it there. He said governments plan is to seek to ensure that those who are gainfully employed are provided with the tools they require to be able to enhance their trade, adding that that was why the state government came up with the training initiative. “It is actually an initiative of the governor which the government bought and paid for. We are doing it in conjunction with the NUJ”, ogeah said. He explained further: “The idea is that Nigeria is getting to a stage where if drastic things don’t happen where not only with the youths be unemployed, they would be unemployable because they don’t even have the skills at all even if the jobs were there. At least I can only impact in my area as the commissioner for Information; and the people I work with on a daily basis are the journalists in the state. That was why we came up with this initiative that we can enhance the value of the journalist because we have a lot of situation where the kind of journalism that we find in the State or in the country is not actually the kind of thing that one should be proud about. The only way we can open their minds for the right things to be done is to give them access to international best practices. And that is exactly what we are trying to do with this exposure at the Reuters..”
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:54:39 +0000
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