PROTOCOL
I first of all have to thank Almighty
Allah for giving us life and health to be able to organize this workshop
without whose might it wouldn’t have been possible.
I thank the DG NBC who saw the necessity
to approve my proposal and fund the workshop, even though other zones had have
a similar workshop about three years ago. It wasn’t possible to do it in
Maiduguri Zone at the time because of security challenges.
As for the Resource persons, my
thanks are twofold. First, for agreeing to be the resource persons in the first
place in spite of their tight schedules. And secondly, which is tied to the
first reason, not many people know that I have a special attachment to all the
Resource persons. Call it nepotism if you like, but it’s partly one of the
reasons I chose them to be the resource persons and partly because of their
specialities in the areas they expertly handled.
Mr. Mark Ojiah has been my boss and
mentor since I joined NBC in 2000. I was his Deputy when he was the Head, Public
Affairs, at NBC HQs, and there was virtually nothing, in a manner of speaking,
he didn’t do for me.
I share something in common with
Engr. Amana. He happens to be a fellow old boy of my former secondary school,
Rimi College Kaduna, although for obvious reasons we did not attend the school
at the same period.
Dr. Armstrong Idachaba took a liking
to me since I joined NBC - and it’s mutual, I assure you. Since then, he has
been helpful with pieces of advice and in whatever way he could. And yes, being
a charming person, we share jokes a lot.
Engr. Eke is another person I like -
I hope it’s mutual, too. We also share jokes a lot.
To the participants, I also say a big
thank you for finding the time to attend. I hope the knowledge you gathered
here will be beneficial to you, your station, the broadcast industry and
Nigeria.
I don’t have enough words to thank
the security agents for responding to our request to secure this place. Adamawa
State is one of the states facing security challenges and it would be
unthinkable to organize something like this without your help.
Members of the press have always been
our colleagues. We have always worked together. And I’m sure they’ll continue
to give us their support. We thank you very much.
Finally, I have to thank my staff in
NBC Maiduguri Zone. They did the bulk of the work that made this workshop
possible. And worthy of mention are the staff in NBC HQs, particularly those in
the Directorate of Human Resource and Administration, Directorate of finance
and Accounts, who facilitated in the success of this programme.
I wish everybody a safe journey back
home.
Thank you.