NOA/NTA TO COLLABORATE MORE TO COMMUNICATE GOVT. POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) have expressed their commitment to a stronger partnership that will lead to a more effective communication of government policies, programmes and activities in line with their respective mandates.

This was the outcome of a meeting between the management of both Agencies which took place at the office of the Director General of the NTA in Abuja. The NOA Director General, Garba Abari led its management to the meeting.

Abari, who enumerated several areas of cooperation between the two governemnt agencies in the past, however said more collaborations are needed at this period because of the increasing level of insecurity, lack of patriotism, corruption and general degenaration of values among the youths of the country. For him, the three key areas requiring immediate joint execution include airing of video skits and other messages that teach morales, unity and patrotism; participation in a project, along with other stakeholders, to increase the level of community vigilance and neighborliness; and finally ensuring a more friendly disposition to the NOA while implementing NTA’s commercialization policy.

In his words: “As a citizen engagement organisation, NOA relies on several partners to achieve its mandate, but i can attest that NTA has been most useful to NOA in its more than 30 years of existence. However, we need to expand the frontiers and that is why we are seeking the assistance of the NTA, with its reach, to make it easier to bring the message of development to more people in the country.

The DG of NTA, Yakubu Mohammed who expressed delight at the visit of NOA management to NTA said his organisation is alive to the reposnisbility of helping government agencies succeed, especially for an organisation like the NOA, whose mandate, principally, is to communicate government policies and programmes in a manner that enables citizens buy into these initiatives.

The DG NTA said: “Working together, we can achieve more for the good of our country and its people. Though, we have partial commercialization, however, it does not blind us from our roles and corporate social responsibility. Commercialization should not be an impediment.”

In order to strengthen the new level relationship, the two agencies are to commit themselves to a memorandum of understanding.