The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Ms. Grace Gerkpe said the training programmes of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) remain a veritable platform for developing effective policies and framework that will help in promoting our culture.

She said this on Thursday, December 21, 2017 while declaring open, a 3-day Workshop on Repositioning Cultural Workers for Improved Productivity with the theme: “Understanding the Cultural Environment for Effective Job performance”, organized by the Institute for Grade Levels 8-14 Staffers of the Federal Ministry of Information & Culture at Northgate Hotel, Mararaba, Nasarawa State.

Represented by the Director of Human Resources in the Ministry, Mr. Ajibola Kayode Olatunji, the Permanent Secretary reiterated that if the trainings culture workers receive from such workshops can be applied effectively in the workplace, it will further help them in understanding the cultural environment for their effective job performance.

  According to her, culture is a powerful element that shapes people’s work enjoyment, relationships and processes. Her words “Culture is something that you cannot actually see, except through its physical manifestations in your workplace. In many ways, culture is like personality. In a person, the personality is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, interests, experiences, upbringing, and habits that create a person’s behaviour”

Continuing, she said “Culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviours shared by a group of people. Culture is the behaviour that results when a group arrives at a set of generally unspoken and unwritten rules for working together”.

While maintaining that the life experiences each employee brings to an organization makes up such organisation, Ms. Gerkpe pointed that culture particularly gets influenced by the organization’s founder, executives, and other managerial staff because of their role in decision making and strategic direction.

She therefore charged participants to avail themselves of the opportunity the workshop presents saying the program provides an interactive forum for them to share, explore and discuss concepts and issues related to cultural environment.

During the workshop, six papers were presented by erudite scholars amongst which are: “Nigeria’s Cultural Environment, Indigenous Values and National Development” by Prof. Ama Doki of the Department of Theatre Arts, Benue State University, Makurdi; “The Role of Language in Cultural Development” by Prof. Mabel Evwierhoma, Former Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Abuja; “Understanding Basic Cultural Administration” and “Towards Effective Cultural Festival Organization: The Startegic A-Z Model” both delivered by Assoc. Prof. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma, the immediate past Executive Secretary of NICO, who is now with the Department of Theatre and Cultural Studies at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK).

Other papers were: “Promoting Nigerian Dress Culture in a Workplace” by Mr. Law Ezeh, Deputy Director/SA to Ag. ES, NICO whose paper was presented on his behalf by Mrs. Chioma Duru (Deputy Director, Research & Documentation, NICO) and Dr. Damisa Suru of the Department of Theatre and Cultural Studies at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK).

In all, thirty (30) culture workers from the Federal Ministry of Information & Culture benefited from the training organized by NICO, in collaboration wit the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.

Caleb Nor

Media Assistant to ES

NICO HQ

Abuja-FCT