The Director General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Yusha’u Dogara Ahmed has advocated for a seamless and deepened Partnership with the media as they provide a veritable platform for NYSC side of the story to be heard. The Director General stated this in his address while declaring open the Media Management Workshop for Members of the top management and State Coordinators in Abuja.
His words: “The importance and timeliness of this programme cannot be overemphasised particularly against the backdrop of the fact that in recent times, the Scheme had been in the eyes of the storm, due to some issues that are totally extraneous to the Corps and beyond our control.
The criticisms generated by the kidnap of Corps Members or the involvement of serving and prospective Corps Members in fatal Road accidents aptly underscore the foregoing”.
The Director General further commended the Press and Public Unit for organising the training, especially in view of the strategic role of the participants as key managers of the Scheme in he spheres of operations, image and reputation management.
According to the NYSC boss, it is most appropriate to use the forum of the workshop to remind the state Coordinators that just as they are the accounting officers in their various Secretariat, they are equally the chief Public Relations Officers of the Scheme at the Secretariat level”. He also said, ” consequently, your actions and inactions in respect of issues affecting the NYSC can impact the Scheme positively or negatively. Equally, what you may regard as a minor issue or incident may be escalated by the media without proper engagement, and can easily go viral in the social media. This further underscores the importance of this training and the choice of the theme-‘Leveraging on Media Organisations to deepen the contributions of NYSC to National development in the post Golden Jubilee Era’, he added.
The Director General further noted that at the end of the workshop, the participants would have been better equipped to efficiently and effectively to discharge their responsibilities, and engender a more mutually beneficial relationship with the Media. He said: “I must not fail to appreciate the good working relationship we have with the media at the National Directorate Headquarters over the years. I enjoin State Coordinators to take a cue from us by ensuring easier accessibility and closer interaction with media Correspondents and Bureau Chiefs in your respective States.
This is the surest way of nipping in the bud bad publicity occasioned by unbalanced reportage”. The Director General further disclosed that he will soon embark on a nationwide advocacy visitation of media Houses to consolidate the gains so far made in the Scheme’s relationship with the media. While thanking the media for their support over the years, he also assure them that the Scheme shall always make regular and proactive disclosure of its operational policies.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Director, Press and Public Relations, Mr. Eddy Megwa fnipr, stated that the training workshop is in line with the Director General’s desire that the corporate image of the Scheme is adequately protected through robust engagement with the media which constitute veritable partners-in-progress with the Scheme since inception.
He said that owing to the precarious position of NYSC in the present-day Nigeria, occasioned by so many factors most of which are extraneous, and beyond the immediate and remote control of the Scheme, it has become necessary that the Scheme become more strategic in deepening its positive image from the grassroots through effective collaboration with the media, which as it were is the most viable option to reduce to the barest minimum the negative criticisms on the Scheme, often based on subjective considerations by some people with veiled selfish interests.
He also appreciated the Director General for his “outstanding media consciousness and unwavering” support to the Press and Public Relations Unit since his assumption of office. He further extolled the Director General’s invaluable support for the NYSC TV and Radio stations, the NYSC Documenary, the NYSC HALF HOUR which has given the Press Unit the impetus to ventilate the contributions of the Scheme to national development, especially in the sphere of youth empowerment, among others. Mr. Megwa further appealed to the State Coordinators to develope closer ties with their Public Relations Officers which is part of the essence of this workshop for more positive result in media relations.