The Head of Civil Service, Mrs. Ekerebong Akpan, has expressed the commitment of Governor Udom Emmanuel to the training and re-training of the state workforce to meet the demands of targeted job schedules.
Mrs. Ekerebong Akpan was speaking recently at the NUJ Press centre, Uyo, while declaring open a one day seminar organized by Ministry of Information and Strategy for all state government Information Officers.
The Head of Civil Service said that, Governor Emmanuel’s commitment is exemplified in his approval for the “intensive seminar” mounted by the Ministry for re-tooling and re-skilling of Information officers, expressing the optimism that, the exercise will empower them to effectively carry out their primary responsibility of informing the populace on the various life-touching programmes and projects of the government.
Mrs. Ekerebong Akpan, who was the special guest of honour at the occasion, maintained that, effective and timely information delivery will checkmate falsehood and misinformation and urged Information officers to use the opportunity to get equipped and transformed to strategize and explore new frontiers that will turn around the fortunes of the state Information sector towards realizing the lofty policies of the Udom Emmanuel-led government.
The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh, underscored the importance of efficient information dissemination in the society and said government is poised towards provision of work tools and regular training for information officers to make them keep pace with global trends in news reporting, assuring that government is aware of their professional challenges.
Mr. Charles Udoh in a training session with information officers on the topic, “Attitude is everything”, described attitude as key to success and urged participants to cultivate positive attitude to work and life in general, to enable them develop enough to surmount challenges and forge towards higher goals.
He used the occasion to express appreciation to Governor Udom Emmanuel for approving the training programme, the Head of Civil Service, Mrs. Ekerebong Akpan, for honouring the invitation to declare open the seminar and announced the institution of a quarterly award of excellence to the best information officer, based on merit and performance.
The Information Boss who said the award will be presented in three categories namely, best Information officer in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), best across the 31 Local government areas (LGAs) as well as best in Government House and state House of Assembly.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Pastor Praise Okon, in a remark, thanked the commissioner for organizing the seminar and the resource persons for accepting the invitation to help in the capacity building of information officers in the state.
He noted that the seminar was organized to update the skills of information officers to keep them in tune with current trends, adding that a trained workforce is one that is positioned to deliver proficiently.
In a goodwill message, the chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Akwa Ibom State Council, Elder Patrick Albert commended the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh for organizing the seminar which will ginger a vibrant information dissemination network in the state and appealed to the state government to encourage information officers with incentives, laptops and other accessories as well as extend the training to other journalists in the state.
Resource persons at the seminar included: Director General of Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC), Pastor Anietie Ukpe, who spoke on speech/report writing, Ag. GM, Akwa Ibom Newspaper Corporation (AKNC) Marvelous Friday Udoh, drilled information officers on feature writing/commentaries and Director Technical Services, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Mr. Inyang Jameson, exposed participants to the rudiments of photojournalism in government information management. Others were: the Director Public Relations, in the Ministry, Mr. Sunday Antai, who taught public speaking, Deputy Director, Information, Mrs. Grace Akpan, lectured on news gathering and reporting, while ICT consultant, Anietie James, demonstrated the use of social media platforms for news reporting.
The seminar witnessed presentation of certificates of participation to the information officers by the Information Commissioner, Mr. Charles Udoh and the reading of communiqué by a Deputy Director of Information, Mrs. Blessing Urua.
She commended the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh, for initiating the training programme barely few months in office, despite the paucity of funds.
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