The Enugu State Commissioner for Information, Aka Eze Aka, has charged Information Officers in the state to be alive to their responsibilities of gathering quality information.
He equally charged all the Ministry of Information (MOI) staff, including those deployed across the state’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to go beyond their usual coverage beats to capture newsworthy information from every corner of the state for public consumption.
The commissioner gave the charge during a meeting with information officers deployed to MDAs (as PROs) and the Management Team, at the State Information Hall on Friday in Enugu.
Aka noted that extensive newsworthy information gathering, was requisite to raising the recognition bar for the ministry as a whole, before the general public as well as the state government for greater good.
He said in line with the policies and programs of Gov. Peter Mbah, in piloting the affairs of Enugu State, every information officer in the state was expected to spread their tentacle for quality information gathering.
“I want to encourage you to continue to do more, I want you to establish a new way of doing things, in line with his Excellency’s idea of transforming the state.
“We need to come up with rich programs that will have contents capable of captivating the public and belong to different social media platforms to be able to propagate our information effectively and represent MOI in the best possible way,” he advised.
Aka further sought new ways by which the ministry could generate funds to help Enugu State Government as obtainable in other sister MDAs in the state.
He added he had taken cognizance of the different views, suggestions and ideas raised at the meeting as well as concerns raised by some of the PROs and the management team.
Aka noted that the new trajectory for the ministry, necessitated that beneficial modalities be put in place to checkmate lapses and uphold the ministry’s premium goals to moving forward.
He further assured that concerns raised during the course of the meeting, would serve as the working parameters for proper modality formation.
“I promise to deal with all these challenges with the help of Gov. Peter Mbah,” he said.
Also speaking at the meeting, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Benedict Ezema, who is a member of the management team, urged members of staff to shun the habit of laying idle in their duty posts when others were being productive.
He stated that all hands must constantly be on deck to do the needful to promote the ministry.
“Responding, some information officers highlighted their challenges in their various MDAs, saying that information needed to be digitalized to enable them perform better.