The immediate past Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Bright Omokhodion, has described the Executive Secretary of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, as a cultural administrator who has brought his intellectual experience to the culture sector.

Rt. Hon. Omokhodion, who is the BoT Chairman of the University of Calabar Alumni Association, declared this in an interview with Nico News at Dreamland Hotel, Owerri, Imo State, during the Annual General Meeting of UNICAL Alumni Association.

He said what needs to be done is for the Federal Government to give him free hand to choose those he feels will help him realize this intellectual dimension to Nigerian culture, just as all Nigerians must give him support.

Rt. Hon. Omokhodion explained that why Dr. Ayakoroma needs this free hand and support is because: “The ills of Nigeria can best be corrected through positive orientation in all segments of our society. This can be achieved through our culture. So, since Dr. Ayakoroma is heading the Cultural Institute that will apply this orientation, he needs support and needs people of like minds to energize this process of orientation.’’

The former Speaker continued: “Dr. Ayakoroma is a Malabite I know very well. He is an easy-going person and a gentleman. He is very humble too. But he is an intellectual and is very proud of what he is doing with the Nigerian culture. He is really proud of that job and has added an intellectual bearing to it. In fact, as the BoT Chairman, I have worked with him closely. William Shakespeare said, it is the apparel that propels the man. So, it is the composition of a team that makes it up. If it is made up of intellectually inclined personalities, there is always a high tendency to get the best synergy out of them for progress. That is what I have done as the BoT chairman in stimulating the potential growth we have had in our Alumni Association. Dr. Ayakoroma is among the team stimulating this growth. It was this same style of collective application of interdisciplinary skill I adopted as a Speaker and I was able to stimulate the latent intellectual capacity of members of Edo State House of Assembly for successful legislative functions.”

The election of the new National Executive Committee, which took place after dissolution of Mr. Kennedy Dike-led EXCO, saw the re-election Dike as the National President for the next three years. It was conducted by an Electoral Committee headed by Sir Kayode Jegede.

Nwagbo Nnenyelike
Corporate Affairs