Nigerians Urged To Shun Acts Capable Of Promoting Disunity

  "Nigerians have been urged to shun acts capable of promoting disunity to enable the country overcome the present insecurity challenge facing the country. The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Dr. Faosade Yemi-Esan gave the charge on Thursday, when the Director of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri paid her a courtesy visit with his management team. Yemi-Esan said Nigerians must ensure that information they pass across to the public are those that enhance national peace and unity in view of the critical time the country is in. According to her, unguided information flow is capable of escalating the present security challenge in the country and further polarise the fragile peace being enjoyed by the citizens. “We must make sure that information we pass are those that cause cohesion and not chaos. “We adults must take a cue from children in expressing our love for this country rather than emphasising tribal and religion preference which are causing unnecessary barriers because that is the only way we can move forward as a nation,” she said. The Permanent Secretary, who decried the Movement of NOA out of the ministry, promised to collaborate with NOA in every area of interest to propagate government policies and programmes that would enhance national development. “NOA was an integral part of the Ministry that was moved out unfortunately. That movement created gap between the work of the two organizations. “I believe that we should operate with synergy and not in silos. The Ministry will be ready to work with you in discharging your duties. “I don’t see reason why we cannot work together, since we are working for the same purpose. We will see how we can give some discounts because we don’t want to run NOA down. There must be synergy to avoid repetition.” She further encouraged NOA to put more of its jingles on the radio, since more Nigerians source their news from the radio. While urging NOA not to disregard other news media, the Permanent Secretary advised them to focus more on radio in information dissemination to reach majority of Nigerians. Earlier in his address, the Director General of the agency, Mr. Mike Omeri said they were in the ministry to seek closer synergy in the conduct of their official duties. The DG said the synergy became imperative because of the social and cultural environment the nation is into which requires that proper messaging about government policies and programmes are synchronized and made more credible and delivered on time to the people for them to take advantage of it and participate in the process of driving the governance process. “The vision of our founding fathers are geared towards making sure that we have one nation. We should identify with Nigeria as our nation of pride and a country of possibilities. We feel there is strength even in the name, Nigeria.” Omeri who lamented paucity of fund in the agency, said his administration had for the first time sent N124,000 to each LGA across the country in the past three years and not to states as reported in the media. He promised to leverage on the available resources to ensure that many citizens are engaged in promoting national cohesion, peace and dignity of labour. On anti-terrorism plans, Omeri said “We have agreed with the military to build more synergy, towards developing communication strategies for mobilization and sensitization, so that more people will support efforts that are been made to unite the country."