Nigerian Arts and Culture Editors and Journalists have been urged to see the NICO Quarterly Media Workshop as an opportunity to improve themselves and rise in their journalism career.
The Chairman of the Workshop section of the recently concluded NICO Quarterly Media Workshop, which took place at the National Theatre, Lagos, Mr. Ben Tomoloju, who made this call, said the workshop is one knowledge impacting event in the culture sector that attracts the highest number of Arts and Culture Journalists in Nigeria.
Disclosing that he is committed to the workshop, even as a veteran Arts and Culture Journalist in Nigeria, Tomoloju, who had been one of the resource persons in previous editions, said the workshop is a platform for arts writers and editors to develop in the profession as well as where they will be informed about the trends and developments in the sector.
Commending NICO for the initiative, Tomoloju said that the ES, Dr. Barclays Ayakoroma, is a force in the culture industry. “I am really happy over the innovation the workshop has attained. I am quite loyal to the workshop. That is why I call on arts and culture journalists in Nigeria to see it as a place to rise and shine in arts and culture reporting.’’
Continuing, he emphasized on the need to use the workshop as a strong avenue to promote advocacy journalism. This, he said, can be achieved if cottage theatres are built in all the Local Government Areas in Nigeria.
According to him, these cottage theatres “will encourage democratic reporting. That is why I am talking of advocacy journalism, where you democratize culture through journalism, whereby the people will be shown their culture in the theatres close to them and the report from such cottage theatres. The artists want to reach the grassroots, so that the people will see him. Most musicians only sing in the airwaves, but they want to sing to the people. So, if there are cottage theatres, they will love to perform there. Their performances will give the arts and culture journalists the opportunity to report the culture the musician performed in. Arts and Culture Journalists really have an agenda to set. They can derive the opportunity for this agenda in this NICO workshop.”
Earlier in his speech, the NICO boss stated that the next workshop comes up in FCT Abuja, after which it moves to States where the hosting States will benefit a lot from the workshop.
The Lagos Workshop, which took place at the VIP Hall of the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, with the theme, Sustaining Nigeria’s Democratic Process: The Imperatives for the culture, attracted many personalities, top government functionaries, artistes, musicians, cultural administrators, arts and culture journalists, and stakeholders in the culture sector in Nigeria. The resource persons, who spoke on the theme were Professor Sophie Oluwole, Malam Garba Abdul Ganger of the International Training Fund (ITF), and Maj-Gen Mathias Efeovbokhan (rtd), who was represented by Barr. Reginald Bob-Manuel.
Nwagbo Nnenyelike
Corporate Affairs