The National President of RATTAWU, Mr Oluwayemisi Bamgbose, has appealed to the Delta Government to commence the payment of the 35 per cent media allowances to its members in Delta.

Bamgbose made the appeal Wednesday in Asaba when members of the National Central Working Committee of the union paid a courtesy visit on Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta.

He said that implementing the media allowance had become imperative in view of the onerous job of media workers.

The RATTAWU president said that Delta was one of the states still paying 17.5 per cent of the allowance to its state media workers.

He said that the role of the media, as a stabilising agent to the nation and states could not be over emphasised.

Bamgbose also appealed to the Delta Government to upgrade and do more to improve the Delta Broadcasting Service (DBS).

He said that state stations had a role to play in projecting the activities of the state government more than other media houses.

He said that RATTAWU was a union for professionals and artisans and they served as intermediaries between the government and the governed.

“We reach out to the people at the grassroots level in our profession, we sell government’s ideas, and project government image, but we do not betray government,” Bamgbose said.

He further appealed that the general managers of DBS stations in both Warri and Asaba should be picked from within the senior management staff, adding that it would promote high morale in the organisation

The president said that the choice of Delta for the 2010 National Central Working Committee and Executive Council delegates conference was to showcase the positive activities in the South- South region.

He said that people all over the world still believed that kidnapping was rampant in the region and in the state.

“But we want to tell the world that the region and indeed the state are safe for development and for investors,” Bamgbose said.

Responding, Prof. Amos Utuama, Deputy Governor, who represented Uduaghan, said the state government believed in developing the people in all human fields of endeavour.

He said that the people of the state were assets and more valuable to the government than the natural resources in the state.

Utuama also said that the government was very concerned with the condition of the state television station and was investing in the organisation.

He said that the organisation would soon be transformed to one of the best in Africa, adding that contract aimed at achieving the set targets had been awarded and work was ongoing.

The deputy governor, however, charged members of RATTAWU to be prepared for the challenges of informing and educating the populace, especially during the electioneering period.

He emphasised that the nation was presently on trial as the world was watching to see if it would give the people a free and fair election in 2011.