Bayelsa Govt Harps On Need To Use The Local Media To Tell Bayelsans What Has Been Achieved

The Bayelsa state government has called on Media practitioners particularly the state run media outlets to ensure the extensive coverage of the government’s accomplishments to the state’s residents.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Ernest Ikoli Media Center, Yenagoa during the flag-off of a two month training programme for staff of Niger Delta Television, the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ayiba Duba said that the current administration was not in the habit of lying to Bayelsans.

Duba however told that staff of NDTV to take the two months training seriously adding that the training will also help them even when they have retired from the civil service.

He said “I just want you to understand that you media people your responsibility now is to make the local people know what the government is doing. I want to state categorically here that the state government headed by Douye Diri is not in the business of lying to Bayelsans.

“I want to ask Bayelsans, which one do you prefer, the one who will be silent quietly doing what is needed to be done or the one that will go to the media and start shouting and at the end of the day, it is not done.

“When we say something we go ahead to do it and that is what the prosperity government is all about. There is not road project that we have decided to embark on that the project had been stopped they are all on going. Every commitment that we have made, we are ready to keep it. It is an election year and people have been talking a lot of things.

Commending the media house he said “This is an ambiance of the office of an oil company. There are still some people who don’t believe that there is a TV station that of the state of the arts but we started a process the government decided that every media house must have a face lift and now it is not just a face lift but total uprooting of what was there and replanting it with a new one.

“We are done with the radio and today is for television and we are all here so that you will be properly trained for two months. And they will take you through the entire processes.
“The only advice I will give you is that you should be committed to the training. The knowledge you are going to acquire is not for me or for the governor. Even when you retire there is what we call consultancy, the knowledge you have you can still use it when you are retired.

Also speaking, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Jane Yawei harped on the need to balance work ethics and morals stating that they are the guides that propel proficiency at the work place.

“ I want you to count yourselves as being privileged and honoured for this training because of the huge investment.

“My concern is on the work ethics, it is one thing to do your job effectively but there has be balance in the work ethics. It is not just about knowing how to handle the camera or any equipment. You have to examine yourself. Work ethics is about morals that guide an organization such as punctuality, professionalism productivity, focus because a lot of people can manage equipment but are lacking in this moral ethics. I want to implore general manager to live above board. She said.

Earlier, the acting general manager of NDTV, Frederick Fabor had thanked the government for the gesture and promised to ensure proper maintenance and handling of the equipment.

He assured the government that the management and staff of NDTV will continue to ensure adequate information dissemination to the people.

He said “We promise that we shall ensure proper maintenance of the edifice and state of the art equipment.

Mohammed Merhi, the managing director of Comflax Nigeria limited, the consultant/ trainers of NDTV staff assured that the equipment were of the state of arts promising to train that staff for better proficiency.

He said “We have commissioned this studio with a fully state of the arts transition equipment and modern digital studios. We are starting with the training of their TV studios on how to operate these fully digital state of the arts equipment.

“In this two months of training, we will ensure that the Training will cover every single details of this new technology and give enough knowledge on how to use these equipment properly.

“We will be here in the next two months to make sure that all of you are trained on how to run a TV station”.