Talthe Executive Secretary of National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma has commended the information and communication technology (ICT) team of the institute for its effective use of the internet, the global information highway, in promoting Nigeria’s rich culture, noting that NICO had the most active website in the cultural sector.

Stating this in a paper, titled, “The role of media relations in repositioning cultural agencies,” which he presented that at the 3-day NICO national media workshop in Abuja, the culture guru explained that the effective operation of cultural agencies depended largely on strategic media relations, and that, “cultural agencies should create friendly relationship with media houses to ensure intensive publication of their programmes and activities as well as having a sustained goodwill with journalists, publishers and media organs.”

According to him, NICO’s website, www.nico.gov.ng, was a repository of cultural activities and had the hyperlinks of other organizations in the sector, namely, Fascinating Nigeria, National Orientation Agency (NOA), National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), National Gallery of Art (NGA), National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), National Theatre/National Troupe of Nigeria, Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC), National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture (BYSCAC), and Rivers State Tourism Development Agency (RSTDA).

He added that the website also contains other platforms like collection of Nigerian indigenous proverbs and aphorisms, online journal articles, and online registration for NICO Training School, among others, stressing that cultural communicators, which comprise culture administrators and arts writers, should be alive to their responsibilities of communicating culture, demonstrating culture, disseminating culture, and propagating and promoting culture for its better appreciation by the people.

The ES therefore charged zonal and state offices of NICO, arts writers, corporate affairs heads and staffers of the institute to make use of the various social network platforms and internet facilities in telling the NICO story to their friends and the wider world, adding that the workshop was a knowledge sharing experience for effective service delivery, which staffers should not undermine.

Clifford Ugwu
Corporate Affairs
NICO South-South Zone