To help drive the policies and programmes of the current administration in Rivers State, the information officers in the State Civil Service have to demonstrate high level professionalism and capacity for value addition.

This was the crux of the message to staff of the State Ministry of Information and Communications by the newly appointed Commissioner for Information and Communications, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim during his maiden meeting with them on Friday, December 3, 2020 in the Ministry’s newsroom, State Secretariat Complex, Port Harcourt.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Soibi Max-Alalibo, the Commissioner charged staff of the Ministry, particularly Press Officers, to focus on improving their performance in the discharge of their duties, enjoining all Press Officers to be creative in whatever Ministry they are deployed to serve, saying that a lot will be expected of them.

“I will demand that Information Officers recreate themselves. One way to achieve that is through personal development,” he said, explaining that this includes doing the needful to make themselves relevant in their areas of primary assignment, which were the areas they are assigned to report.

Using the 2020 State Budget as an example, Nsirim said, “I expect that every Information Officer should find out what percentage (of the budget) is assigned to your various ministries and develop news stories/feature articles from them.”

“Those in the Local Government Areas (LGAs) need to be alive to their responsibilities because they would need to write more news from the LGAs and even their environs, because people want to know what is happening around them”, he said.

To enhance this, the Commissioner said the Ministry will increase training and retraining of staff to put them in good stead to work towards achieving the new vision of the Ministry and that of the State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, for the development of the State.

“We will increase training and retraining this year,” he said, “but I’ll need to see proof of improvement in your performance, to encourage me to continue with the training. We will rejig the system because we need productivity. I will respect everybody, but I will not take any form of indolence”.

Nsirim further stated that, aside training, attention will also be given to making the working environment more comfortable for staff, assuring that “towards this end, we we’ll try to make the office more comfortable. But we must justify it”.

Explaining the implication of his appointment, Nsirim, who was the first Commissioner to be appointed directly from within the Ministry since the creation of the State in 1967, stated that it is a show of trust on the part of the Governor that the Ministry has proven to be worthy of running its affairs towards the development of the State.

“But this calls for more work. If the Governor has deemed us worthy to produce the Commissioner, it means it is a call to duty. No one should therefore be seen to prove the Governor wrong.

“The business of an Information Officer does not end with collecting salary. He is expected to adequately report his beat, whatever beat he/she is assigned. We need to rile up our sleeves because this promotion is a call for greater productivity”, he said.

He thanked Governor Wike for the promotion and opportunity given him and the Ministry, assuring that everything possible will be done to achieve the goals of the Governor in his vision to build a better Rivers State.

Responding, Chairman of the Information Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Owupele Benebo assured the Commissioner of the readiness of all to work in tandem towards the achievement of set goals.

Speaking further on behalf of the Information Officers, Benebo used the opportunity to thank the State Governor for providing the Ministry with one of the best as a Commissioner.

All other staff who spoke at the meeting were unanimous in welcoming the Commissioner, saying that he possesses the requisite qualification to lead the Ministry towards a new and better dawn.