The News Agency of Nigeria plans to set up offices in all the 109
senatorial districts across the country, the acting Managing Director
of the agency, Jide Adebayo, said on Thursday in Abuja.
Adebayo stated this when the President of the Nigerian Society of
Engineers, Mustafa Shehu, paid him a courtesy visit.
He said 40 of such district offices had been established in addition
to the agency’s existing offices in the 36 states.
The managing director said that the decision to establish district
offices apart from the state capitals was informed by the need to get
closer to the grass-roots where most of the people live.
He said: “The local government, which is the third tier of government,
has a reasonable proportion of allocation, so we believe the media
have a role to monitor developmental projects that are going on at
that level.
“The only way we can do that effectively is to ensure that there is
daily coverage of activities at that level.”
Adebayo urged the society to extend its subscription to NAN Short
Message services to more members of the society.
“This service provide, through handsets, daily news break in the
country and we know that many top executives do not have the time to
go through newspapers or listen to radio,” he said.
Responding, Shehu emphasised the need for professional bodies to
establish strong relationship with the media.
“The media are very critical to the nation because of their role in
sharing information between policy makers and the general public,” he
said.
“Since my assumption of duty as the president of the society, I have
made a point of duty to make sure that whatever we do are seen and
heard locally and internationally,” he added.
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