… Commissioner of Information Calls for Media support Against De-marketing State
Commissioner
for Information and Communications, Rivers State, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, has
alleged that there those are bent on de-marketing the State to under the
Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, is the one that has come to reshape the
destiny of the State for the better.
Making this
declaration on Friday (January 10, 2020) at the Rivers State Broadcasting
Corporation (RSBC), the Commissioner said it is for this reason that the
Governor has turned the state into a project site.
He explained
that it is also for the same reason that some detractors of the Governor seek
to de-market the state with a view to scaring away investors, in order to have
perceived good reason for doing what they are doing.
“If in the
present hardship climate that we find ourselves, the Governor will start to
build three flyover projects at the cost of N21 billion and they are being
constructed simultaneously, and he has released 70 per cent of that amount to
Julius Berger, I don’t know what other proof people want. Where has any
Governor tried it in this country?
The
Commissioner, who was on a State Government-owned media tour to the station,
stated that the vision of the Governor is to make the State a destination of
choice, towards which the State-owned media needs to up its game.
“He (Wike)
is a man, who has come to reshape our destiny, make Rivers State a destination
of choice. So, we must collectively use our various media organs to support the
‘New Rivers Vision’ of His Excellency.
“What I have
come to do is to get us have a change of mind-set, re-orientation to tell
ourselves that in the present circumstance, we can still make ourselves
relevant”, he said.
He continued
that “The ultimate goal is for us to reposition Rivers State broadcasting
corporation, in the face of challenges of equipment and transmitter.
“My charge
to all the state media houses is that within the limit of what we have, we need
to demonstrate to the people of Rivers State that we have the potential to
deliver.
“In my work
in this life, I have found out that if you put in your best, reward comes.
Sometimes it might not come from the angle you expect it. If you don’t give,
you will not get, and it translates to work. If you don’t put in your best,
divinity will not smile at you”, he said.
Towards this
end, he continued, the expectation from the RSBC is to come up with
deliberately planned enlightenment programmes and jingles that would make
people “understand that demarking the state is something we should reject
totally”.
Speaking on
behalf of Journalists in the station, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists (NUJ), Radio Rivers Chapel, Walson Ibim Asako, assured the
Commissioner of the readiness of Journalists in the station to key into the
mandate given them.
He, however,
appealed to the Commissioner to reach out to his co-Commissioners also not to
de-market the government-owned media by advertising in them, saying that it is
one key way to boost the revenue base of the government-owned media.
On her part,
the immediate past State Chairman of the Radio and Theatre Arts Workers Union
(RATTAWU), Opi Erekosima, harped on training and retraining for workers to put
them in good stead to up their game.
The
Commissioner also took the same message to Garden City Radio, the second State
Government-owned radio station in old GRA,Port Harcourt.
In the
Commissioner’s entourage were all the directors in the Ministry.
