FG vows to resist relocation order to NAN by Lagos

Dr. Folasade Femi-Esan, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information, said on Wednesday everything would be done to ensure that the News Agency of Nigeria retained its present office in Lagos State.
Femi-Esan said this while leading some officials of the ministry on a tour of facilities at the NAN complex.
She said: “We have seen really and we know that it is a battle that must be fought, not something we will fold our hands and give up on.
“Whatever we can do to make sure that these structures stay here we will do.
“The evaluation really is not to get compensation per se.
“When you are looking at a building and you don’t know how much had gone into it, you think you can just pull it down and get it out of your way.
“When you know that a lot had been put in to get to this stage and the figures are staggering, you would have to think twice.
“Where we are coming from is that there was a committee that was set up, the Federal Ministry of Information was not part of that committee.
“Those decisions cannot be binding.
“We have to go back to the table and see what it is all about.”
Femi-Esan, however, said that both the Ministries of Information and Culture, which were under the same umbrella at inception, would ensure an amicable resolution of the matter.
Alhaji Ibrahim Buba, the Chairman, NAN Board of Directors, who described the agency as a national icon, said: “Pulling a war with NAN is like pulling a war with the entire media world.
“If you have an edifice like this (National Theatre) and it is rottening away with all the number of halls and meeting rooms and all that, you don’t think about giving it on lease for someone to re-do it and run it, while the government still retains the ownership, then something is wrong.”
Buba described NAN as the flagship of Nigerian journalism
The new Managing Director of NAN, Ima Niboro, conducted the team round the facilities, including an 850-capacity Media Centre, a studio, a newsroom, a library and other offices.
Niboro applauded the Federal Ministry of Information, especially the permanent secretary, for stepping into the matter.
According to him, NAN has made a giant leap as a media content provider to all segments of the mass media in Nigeria and beyond.
Niboro pledged to improve on its internally generated revenue, in addition to keeping up the existing high standard.