Worried about the unimpressive patronage of its training school programmes in Lagos and the Abuja Study Centre by external students, Management of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) is re-strategizing ahead of the 2015/2016 academic session.

Part of the plans is to organize quarterly NICO Public Lectures Series, which will draw prominent personalities outside the academic as paper presenters on various topics under the auspices of the NICO Training School Seminar Series, including the NICO Annual Convocation Lectures.

The personalities to be engaged include politicians, captains of industry and heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), both at the federal, state and local government levels, including traditional rulers; and that, the quarterly public lecture series aims at further promoting the school, giving it greater visibility to encourage students to enrol for its programmes.

This idea was conceived during an interactive session on Friday, 18th December, 2015 at the Institute’s head office, Abuja, between the Management and the Academic Board of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), at the instance of the Executive Secretary, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma.

According to Ayakoroma, the strategy will compliment his earlier directive to directors to be part of the contact/mobilization teams geared towards sensitizing culture workers in MDAs at the federal, state and local government levels to enrol for the programmes offered by the Training School.

The ES further directed all the directors to prevail on their subordinates to embark on aggressive marketing of the Training School programmes as it will be one of the criteria for assessments in subsequent staff promotions, considering how many persons staffers attracted to the school as it is being done in the private sector.

According to him, plans were underway for the Institute to collaborate with international cultural centres, such as the Chinese and Korean Cultural Centres, among others, in order to admit foreign students, and that he will also explore the possibility of synergizing with the National Assembly on the need to make cultural orientation part of their retreats in subsequent years.

On why the affiliation of the Post Graduate Diploma in Cultural Administration (PGDCA) programme with Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK) has taken a long time, the ES informed that the university has approved postgraduate programmes for the department, further disclosing that, NSUK had engaged the services of three renowned theatre professors: Olu Obafemi, Rasaki Ojo Bakare and Jeremiah Methuselah, to strengthen and reposition the department, which will finally pave the way for the smooth running of the approved postgraduate programmes and add NICO Training School as an affiliate.

Present at the meeting were the Director, Research & Documentation, Prince Bamidele Olusa; Director, Orientation & Cultural Affairs, Mr. Alex Omijie; Acting Director, Admin. & Human Resources, Alhaji Ibrahim Hussaini; Deputy Director, Legal Services, Barr. Musa Kakamba; Deputy Director/SA-ES, Mr. Law Ezeh; Asst. Director/Coordinator NICO Training School, Abuja Study Centre, Dr. (Mrs.) Regina Onuoha, and other academic staff.

Philemon Udeh

Corporate Affairs

NTS, Abuja Study Centre