X-raying National Orientation Agency, 20 years after. The National Orientation Agency (NOA) was established in 1993, to, among other things; “re-orientate and encourage Nigerians to take part actively and freely in discussions and decisions affecting their general and collective welfare and for matters connected there with.” There are opinions that the agency which is exactly 20 years old this year, indeed calls for both celebration and reflection as to how far it has fared in achieving its objectives towards national development and growth. Some have credited it with some feats, while others have scored it low on some areas they think it had not performed as expected. It was for instance, learnt that though the agency started on a very good note on its mandate, over the years it seemed to have lost its relevance and had nearly stagnated at some point, making many observers to suggest that the agency should not only be merged with its sister agency but be out rightly scrapped. However, the appointment of its current Director-General, Mike Omeri in January, 2012 by President Goodluck Jonathan seemed to have set a new pace and drive for the once moribund agency. Described as “a seasoned communicator, an astute administrator and a veteran public relations practitioner,” Omeri took up the appointment with all the needed enthusiasm. At resumption, he had immediately put machinery in place to re-position the agency, to contribute its quota to resolve the current security challenges and public apathy to government policies just as more efforts in re-strategising with more pre-emptive, preventive and proactive approaches to handling societal attitudes were equally enhanced. While evaluating the performance of Omeri, NOA’s Director (Press), Paul Odenyi recalled that: “Barely two weeks in office, Omeri unveiled a new blue-print to re-position NOA in the pursuit of its mandate. A new zeal has been introduced into the agency to be driven by volunteer Nigerians for attitudinal transformation.” To this end, he pointed out that the agency has since embarked on a national campaign titled, “Know Your Values” to inculcate the desired positive values in all Nigerians, especially the youths. “This campaign is being executed with the active collaboration of traditional and religious leaders,” he said. It was also noted that the agency has commenced engaging schools and the media to propagate national core values by avoiding negative reportage of events which portray the nation in bad light. “The agency has made sure that school children must also be taught that the bizarre occurrences in the nation in recent times are not in our character and therefore, must not be imbibed,” stated an Abuja resident, Mrs. Asha Mustapha. They identified the most significant among Omeri’s achievements to the introduction of a new slogan for the agency’s nationwide transformation campaign. The campaign slogan, “Do the Right Thing; Transform Nigeria” according to the agency, is in line with President Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda. The agency explained that the campaign “seeks to drum up support for the Transformation Agenda from the premise of positive attitudinal change” which it said has received commendations from many quarters, including the House of Representatives Committee on Information and National Orientation when it visited the agency on its oversight function. Another identified achievement is the beefing up of the capacity of its existing War Against Indiscipline (WAI) Brigade Volunteers which has been re-branded to ‘Community Support Brigade’ aimed “to transform NOA along with its various units and organs into a pro-active, knowledge-based and activity-driven organisation able to rise up to evolving challenges in our national space”. “With the idea, NOA is therefore integrating into the Community Support Brigade, a corps of 3,000 Neighbourhood Development Ambassadors, a volunteer corps of unemployed professionals, artisans and youths across the various communities in our nation,” a civil servant who preferred anonymity, stated. Daily Independent gathered that the duty of the new crop of volunteers is to engage in volunteer sanitation activities, communicate and integrate government policies to the people in their various communities as well embark on the Know-Your-Neighbour campaign aimed at fostering national integration and peaceful co-existence. The agency under Omeri has in furtherance of its orientation activities, slated September 16 of every year as “the National Ordinance or Symbol Day for Nigerians. “ Daily Independent also gathered that the Day was symbolic to the agency because it was a time when the British colonialists who ruled in the country then handed over the symbols to former Tafawa Balewa. The agency thus, sees in the date, the opportunity to sensitize Nigerians more on the need to respect the country’s national symbols that are tied to national unity towards growth and development. Omeri listed his administration’s resolve to re position the agency as a key player in the transformation of the Nigerian system as major achievement. Our reporter also gathered that the agency, in conjunction with the Ecological Fund Office (EFO) of the Presidency, has been working out strategies to mitigate flood impact in the country as the agency’s “Do the Right Thing: Avoid Dirt, Be Clean” gathers steam. To this end, the DG had visited the Permanent Secretary, EFO, Engr. Goni Sheikh in Abuja. It has in addition developed an initiative based on Public Private Partnership (PPP) in response to recurring flooding with its attendant impact to promote a new set of eco-friendly behaviours in reversing the trend. Speaking at the presentation, Omeri who decried the attitude of Nigerians towards solid waste disposal, sought the support of the Fund for the initiative, adding that the aim was to synergise strategies and “carry same message to Nigerians so as to build a resilient environment against floods.” “We want to imbibe in Nigerians 21st century eco-friendly attitude. We want to work with communities on how to achieve proper and acceptable solid waste management. We hope to achieve this through sustained community education, orientation and sensitisation,” he stated. Desmond Ojo, a resident in Abuja, described these initiatives as major steps taken in the right direction, especially evolving new solid waste disposal behaviour to mitigate the effects of flood across the country. He pointed out that this particular initiative had received National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)’s nod and that of some state governments. Officials of NOA equally stress that in order to ensure that Nigeria’s democratic system speedily evolves into an efficient tool for meeting the governance needs of the people, it has insisted that Nigerian women should neither be excluded nor neglected at any level of democratic enterprise. This, it was learnt, was the position of the agency at a one-day round table with the theme: “Promoting women political empowerment, peace and security” organised by the agency in Karu, Abuja penultimate Thursday. Omeri stressed that as the country inches towards 2015 general elections, Nigerians earnestly desire more active involvement by Nigerian women at the three level of government. He called on women to take a bold step to surmount all obstacles standing against their emergence as key leaders at all levels of the democratic process and governance. He attributed what he described as “the dismal performance of women in politics” to their apathy to political party involvement, the socialization process, as well as customs and traditions that restrict women to private domain. He identified other militating factors as lack of internal democracy in political parties, monetization of politics, zoning and administrative fiats. “I wish to urge you to register as members of any political party of your choice in order to have legitimacy to neutralise negative perceptions against female politicians, add quality to governance and enhance opportunity for party patronage and benefits”, said the NOA DG. Observers further stressed that though the agency has achieved much under Omeri, he needs to do more in the area of educating Nigerians on how to defeat the twin negative elements of ignorance and cynicism. According to Fred Agbo a civil servant, there is need for the agency to create more awareness campaign on the ‘Do the Right Thing Campaign’, by getting to the grassroots and various sectors of public offices due to the ignorance of many who are yet to understand the concept of the campaign. He continued that the agency should be in partnership with the media as number one agent of mobilisation and change in the society. The media he opined will be handful in the dissemination of information to the larger audience on the transform Nigeria campaign.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 10:31:16 +0000
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