Consultant to the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Mr. Babajide Ajibola who is also a retired Director from the Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture, has admonished staff of the Institute to interact more with cultural officers in the ministry as well as other parastatals to expand their knowledge in other areas of culture for career progression.
Ajibola who made this call at the end of the 2025 promotion examination conducted by the Institute, said to guarantee success during promotion examination exercise, officers should have sufficient interaction with their counterparts in other parastatals, the parent ministry as well as get acquainted with rules and regulations.
According to him, the new changes in the last two editions of promotion examination exercise conducted by the Institute were informed by the need to adhere to public service rules in such an intellectual interface.
His words “NICO was treated as an appendage of a university. Even though NICO is attached to Nasarawa State University, Keffi and it is also a training institute, it is still a public service institution and not a university or a polytechnic. So, the content of its promotion should be a hybrid of public service and intellectual interface. It should not be tilted towards university curriculum”.
“More so, NICO is supposed to train civil servants in the culture sector and to do this, the staff here need some re-training to understand what the ministry and other parastatals are doing to have a more meaningful macro perspective of the whole cultural sector. This is because if you don’t understand what the whole ministry and parastatals are doing, how do you teach them?
While stressing the need to train the trainers capacity building, Ajibola maintained that the establishment of the Nigerian Academy for Cultural Studies (NACUS) by the Institute, with a view to upgrade its curricular, integrate and incorporate the syllabus or the practical works carried out by the Ministry and the other parastatals, remain very crucial to the progress of the cultural sector.
Deputy Director for Appointment, Promotions and Discipline, Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Mrs. Ladi Lamayi who was on ground to witness the conduct of this year’s promotion examination exercise commended the Management of NICO for adhering to laid down guidelines.
“So far, the officers are conducting themselves well. I can see them following the instructions given to them so all I can say is to wish them well”.
The examination exercise was held simultaneously in ten (10) centres across the federation to include Lagos, Bayelsa, Owerri, Gombe, Ilorin, Katsina, Minna, Enugu, Ibadan and the FCT.
Caleb Nor
Media Asst.-ES
NICO, Abuja
