Abuja -The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has urged Nigerian youths to shun the clamour for ethnic nationalities and embrace activities that will ensure national cohesion.
Its Director-General, Mr Mike Omeri, gave the advice in Abuja on Thursday when he met with Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Information.
“We need to show national cohesion, peace, unity and the love of one country.
“We need to discourage this issue of nationalities. Nigeria is not a country of nationalities. It is one nation – citizens of Nigeria.
“And the strength of a nation actually is expressed in the ability of citizens of that nation to stand for each other and for their country. That is what makes a country strong.“
Omerei said that NOA should have remained an agency under the Federal Ministry of Information as they were both saddled with the responsibility of passing information about government’s activities and Nigeria’s projects.
He said the visit was to request the ministry to prevail on both the Federal Radio Corporation (FRCN) and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) to reduce the cost of the air time they were charging the agency.
“This is very important because we need the electronic media particularly for our community dialogue platform,“ he said.
Responding, Yemi-Esan assured the NOA that the ministry would ensure that FRCN and NTA offered some discount in spite of their commercialisation drive.
She also called for synergy between information officers at all levels and officers of agencies to avoid duplication of roles.
“We both need to be on our feet and make sure that the information we pass out will be information that will cause cohesion and not separation.
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“I’m glad when I hear children talk. If you ask a child now where are you from? He will tell you `I am a Nigerian`; and we adults must take a cue from there.
“We should forget where we came from originally and embrace being Nigerian because that is the only way we can move forward.“
