Professor Emmanuel Dandaura, an astute theatre scholar and culture icon in Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), has assured candidates, who wrote the 2014 National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) promotion examinations that their individual performances would be the yardstick for their promotions in the various cadre.
Speaking in an interview with NICO news, shortly after the exercise, which took place on Thursday, 10th July at the Auditorium of the Federal Civil Service Institute, Kubwa-Abuja, Dandaura, who supervised the exams as the Consultant, declared that his expectation was that the best candidates would get promoted.
Disclosing what informed his area of concentration for the questions, the culture icon stressed that, there was need for workers to be acquainted with the administrative structure and activities of their workplace, and above all, cultivate a reading culture.
His words: “The questions to me also appeared to be friendly enough because we did not have complaints. I believe too that it would have sensitised staff more on the need to read some of the publications of NICO. The Institute has a lot of publications and there is no question that has been asked here today that you would not have found in one or two of the publications even as recent as the workshop that we had last week. So, that would perhaps make staff see the need to use their spare time to read one or two publications of NICO.”
Dandaura also commended the candidates for their orderliness during the exams, saying, “Well, the conduct of the exams from my perspective has been very successful in terms of the orderliness of the candidates; they conducted themselves well. The venue itself was serene for a successful examination and I believe that the standard in terms of administration of the questions as conducted by the Management staff here has been successful and satisfactory.”
On the other hand, the candidates reacted on the scope of the exam as having captured their areas of concentration, while for others, an exam is not the true test of knowledge.
Blessing Fashomo of the Orientation and Cultural Affairs Department, Abuja, spoke to NICO news on her expectation during the exams as she did not hide her fears. “I was expecting that it will be more difficult than I saw because initially I was scared that may be the questions will turn out to be more… but what I saw in the questions that came out was more like practical. Practical in the sense that for all that I have participated during my official assignment is what came out and I am really happy that I wasn’t disappointed on the long run. It was very very fair.”
Anastasia Maigari of the Finance and Accounts Department, Gombe State Office, also shared her experience, saying, “The exam was okay; it’s fair but actually there was tension, because an exam, I believe, is not the true test of knowledge and there are some things that you will ignore; you will think they are not even important or relevant; they would come out in the exam and those ones that you read would not come out.”
A total of eighty-six (86) candidates from the Institute’s Head Office, Zonal and State Offices (except for Enugu office), who were due for promotion wrote the exams.
Njideka Justina Dimgba
Corporate Affairs
NICO, Abuja-FCT