National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) Training School, Abuja Study Centre, on Thursday, 23rd March, 2017, held its project proposals defence for students of the Post Graduate Diploma in Cultural Administration (PGDCA) programme for the 2016/2017 Academic Session, at the Institute’s Headquarters, No. 23 Kigoma Street, Wuse Zone 7, Abuja-FCT.

The Executive Secretary, National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, while addressing the students, said that the essence of the exercise was to share ideas with the students as well as make necessary corrections on the topics to enable them carry out adequate research and proper documentation of their works.

In the course of the defence, the ES NICO, who is also a visiting Associate Professor at Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK), said that students should take the opportunity to visit the NICO website (www.nico,gov.ng) to consult appropriate materials written by various erudite scholars, including himself.

He further, directed the Coordinator, NICO Training School, Abuja Study Centre, Dr. Regina Onuoha, to arrange and collect projects that had been submitted to the NICO Training School, Lagos Study Centre, for students to make reference to, adding that any research carried out and not cited by others would be useless as it would not be contributing to knowledge.

In conclusion, NICO Boss, while expressing his deep appreciation to everyone for their patience, noted that he believed the students had learnt from the panellists, advising them to embark on their research works once the topics are approved and endeavour to cooperate with their supervisors so as to complete and submit their projects early enough.

In all, twenty (20) students, out of a total of twenty four (24), defended their project proposals with topics ranging from festivals, gender, cultural education, tourism development, peace and conflict, language, media and religion.

Present with Prof. Barclays Ayakoroma and the Coordinator, NTS, Abuja Study Centre, Dr. Regina Onuoha, were Mr. Alex Omijie, Mr. Law Ezeh, Mr. Hussaini Ibrahim, Mr. Patrick Obi, and Mr. Oyewole Akanle.

Sandra Kingsley-Omogiade

NICO Training School

Abuja Study Centre