Hon. Ahrmba (middle) flanked by Ukpoju left

NKRUMAH BANKONG-OBI/Lafia

The governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule is desirous of maintaining a firm partnership with the media. This is because he sees journalists as allies in the quest to fast-track the development of Nasarawa State. The governor’s interest was made known by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Peter Ahemba, when he led a delegation of spokespersons to the governor at the Correspondents Chapel in Lafia, on Friday.

Ahemba told the reporters that his principal has utmost regard for the media, hence he understands that a partnership is necessary to achieve the objective of transforming the State. “We want to seize this opportunity to solicit more collaboration with the Chapel. The chapel has been doing quite a lot as far as information dissemination is concerned in Nasarawa State. We are happy that journalists under the umbrella of the Correspondents’ Chapel have been doing their best despite the challenges of the present times,” he said, praising the newsmen for their effort to ensure that government policies and programs are propagated at all times.

He therefore called for continuity, as the governor “Will continue to partner with the Chapel[and] His Excellency’s administration will continue to do everything possible to see that journalists have an enabling environment in Nasarawa State to practice their profession effectively and also ensure their security is guaranteed because that is one of the cardinal objectives of government; to provide security for lives and property.

Ahemba noted that Governor Sule has demonstrated his commitment to a media partnership by awarding the contract for the renovation of the State secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists and installing state-of-the-art facilities on the edifice. “You will agree with me that because of the importance His Excellency attaches to the partnership with journalists in Nasarawa State, journalists’ issues are always attended to, whenever challenges have come, His Excellency is always quick to address them to the best of his ability

Responding, the Chairman of the Chapel, Isaac Ukpoju said the Chapel has kept faith with the government and people of Nasarawa by working in tandem with the government to enhance governance in the State. He told the guests that the reporters take the governor’s words on a sound partnership seriously and will look forward to working together to achieve the set goals. He stated, however, listed some of the Chapel’s challenges that require prompt attention. Some of these he said are editorial, access to information to forbade misinformation and disinformation. Ukpoju, therefore, called on the government to “Ensure that the information mechanism is made in such a way that quality information is made available so that at the end of the day, we will not misinform the people and we will be doing our jobs responsibly.”

Ukpoju called on the government to assist the Chapel find a befitting secretarial accommodation to enable the reporters to function effectively, stating that the “government should do more to strengthen the relationship going forward.”