By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Niger state Council in collaboration with Niger state Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs have organised one day training Workshop for Local Government Areas (LGAs) Information Officers (IOs) and Media Aides.
Declaring the training workshop which took place at the IBB Pen House open, Niger state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Obed Nuhu Nana encouraged Information Officers (IOs) and Media Aides to Local Government Council (LGC) Chairmen to embrace professionalism which included, proactive communications skills and effective information dissemination that will help them in effective discharge of their duties.
The Commissioner described information officers as the core personnel, deployed to the 25 LGAs by the state Ministry of Information and Orientation to ensure effective communication dissemination in rural areas, adding that effectiveness of the IOs will bring to an end cases of disinformation and misinformation.
Nana who expressed disappointment that most of the IOs deployed to the 25 Council were not living up to expectations encouraged them to take ownership of their responsibilities by actively monitoring activities in their respective LGAs, including traditional and security situations and promptly submitting verified reports to the Ministry.
He argued that, if the IOs were doing well, there is no way content creators and fake journalists will invade their respective duty posts to dish out distorted facts about what is going on in their respective areas.
While encouraging participants to improve their skills by continuous learning and professional development in order have comparative over others, the Commissioner reminded them that formal training in journalism or mass communication should not prevent them from excelling in their profession.
He commended Niger State Council of the NUJ for organising the training workshop, describing collaboration between government information officers and the media as very essential to effectively public communication and expected feedback.
Earlier, the National President of the Association of Local Government Information Officers of Nigeria, Alhaji
Jibrin Bissallah Suleja urged the IOs to take their profession seriously by embracing continuous learning, professionalism and as well synergize with journalism practitioners for cross fertilization of ideas.
Effective communication, according to Bissallah requires cooperation between IOs and media practitioners, adding that both parties need each other as neither of the group could achieve meaningful results in isolation.
Earlier, the NUJ Council Chairman, Comrade Abu Nmodu, encouraged the participants to see the training as an opportunity to improve their knowledge, writing skills, strengthen their professional relationships and as well reposition information management at the local government levels. NNL.
