What Deltans’ll Gain From NCI Meeting- Ukah

The Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah has justified the decision of the state government to host the 46th meeting of the National Council on Information (NCI) scheduled for Wednesday, October 26 to Saturday, October, 29, 2016.
In an interview at the weekend, Ukah said the event holds much potential for the state government and the information officers in the state who may explore the meeting to improve on their wealth of knowledge in the information business.
Recall that the commissioner had, in a statement signed by him, disclosed that the state will host the highest information policy making body in the country for a-three day meeting which theme is “Leveraging on Information and Digital Technology to Sustain the Change Agenda of Government”.

The commissioner explained that one of the major gains of the event is that it will avail information officers in the state the opportunity to interact with their counterparts at the top echelon and give them practical insights into the processes of formulating and implementing information policies around the globe.
He said: “The main reason is that hosting such event of national relevance will avail the numerous information officers in the state to, at least in their life time, have a firsthand experience of a meeting of the National Council on Information.

“A good knowledge of efficient economics will reveal that it will be very expensive – in terms of money – if we are to make our officers attend this kind of event and have its beneficial rapport with their colleagues outside the state. So, hosting this event will primarily give us an opportunity to expose our information officers and give them the opportunity to interact with the top shots in the information business in Nigeria.
“The event will give information officers good working insights into the various mechanisms involved in the formulation and implementation of information policies around the world. If that is done, it will enable them to fall back to their home state and contribute positively to the formulation and implementation of information policies in the state”.
On its bearing on the state government, the commissioner said: “The meeting will help us to practically debunk some of the misconceptions that are being peddled in some quarters about the good magic that Governor Okowa is doing in the state.
“With this event, we will be able to interact with the outside world and bring people into the state to see what the state government is doing. Besides, this meeting will also afford us the prospect of consolidating our stand of openness and friendliness to private investments”.
Further, Ukah pointed out that contrary to the expected norm, corporate organizations will be the major financiers of the event, while the state government will only provide a meager fund to compliment available resources needed to host the NCI.
“In doing all these, we have embraced a commendable level of prudence, particularly in the light of the economic slump. We are not looking at government funding which is, of course, very meager. We have explored other avenues of bringing in some corporate organizations to assist in the funding of the event.
“That is the way to go in lieu of the lingering economic depression. This event is an opportunity to showcase Delta to the world, showcase Delta as a friendly state and showcase Delta as a state that is ready for investment”, he observed.