AKPABIO DONATES 100 LAPTOPS TO JOURNALISTS

In line with his administration’s commitment to improving the working conditions of journalists in Akwa Ibom, Governor Godswill Akpabio has promised to donate one hundred laptop computers to members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in the State, to enable them carry out their responsibilities with greater efficiency.

Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, announced this on Monday in Uyo, during the presentation of 75 laptops to journalists in the State by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation and Mobil Producing Nigeria Joint Venture.

The announcement of the Governor’s promise to journalists by the Commissioner, which was received with a loud ovation from reporters, who present at the event, came the same day 75 journalists went home with computers, courtesy of the NNPC/MPN Joint Venture.

Mr. Umanah said the “gesture was part of Governor Akpabio’s efforts to encourage journalists to effectively disseminate information, especially about government’s policies and programmes to the people.”

According to him, contemporary journalism had gone beyond the pen and paper era to the regime of modern communication gadgets.

Mr Umanah, himself a journalist, reminded his colleagues of the need for them to always abide by the ethics of the profession, by ensuring objectivity and balance in the information they relay to the public.

While thanking the NNPC/MPN Joint Venture for supporting government’s efforts of enhancing the practice of journalism in Akwa Ibom State, the Commissioner charged the benefiting journalists to make adequate use of the computers.

Presenting the laptops, the Manager, Public and Government Affairs, Qua Iboe Terminal of Mobil Producing Nigeria, Mr. Akaninyene Esiere, said the “donation is in furtherance of the existing cordial relationship between the NNPC/MPN Joint Venture and the media in the State.”

He pointed out that “over the last 10 years, the Joint Venture has several times provided assistance to the State NUJ, including contributing to the building of the NUJ Press Centre and the Computer Centre, training of members in professional areas on Information and Communication Technology, ICT.

One of the beneficiaries was the State Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Elder Patrick Albert, who expressed appreciation to the Joint Venture for the gifts.
He described the event as “quite epochal for the State Council of NUJ, as it falls in line with the union’s continuing quest to broker mutually beneficial relationship with public and private organizations for equipping of journalists in the State.”