Society Urges Nigeria To Prioritise Dev

The Executive Secretary, West Africa Society for Communication and Administration (WASCA), Mr Simeon Charles, has urged Nigeria to identify and prioritise areas of development, to catch up with global trend.

Charles gave the advice in an interview with newsmen recently in Abuja.

Who said the problem with Nigeria is like that of a passenger that sees any moving train and jumps into it because he does not have a sense of direction.

“We find it difficult to actualise a particular stage of development before we move on to another one because if you look into the ICT now, reports show that we are lagging behind.

“Any technology we see, we just jump into it without coming to terms with the intricacies of that system that makes it produce optimally; so we are having problems following global or international development.

This is “because we don’t actualise a particular stage of development when we see that the world has moved to another stage we abandon where we are and move into it.

“What we should do is to go back to the drawing board and choose our prioritises; that means that we must identify, prioritise and isolate an area of development get done with it and then move on to the next stage, ‘’ he said.

The executive secretary said the association was trying to create awareness on the positive effects of information technology which was the prevailing situation in the world today, but warmed against the misuse of the social media.

“The social media which have aided communication, a by-product of communication technology, is also creating problems if we do not manage it properly, rather than improving or developing us it will be creating problems.

“So we must use it effectively and with decency in a positive manner to affect and impact the lives of people; that is how we can really key into global advancement.”

Charles called on other professional bodies to also assist the government by bringing their professionalism into play in rendering meaningful advice to issues that would lead to greater national development.

He said such bodies should be able to tell government when it was moving in the wrong direction.

The executive secretary said the groups should not shy away from telling the truth about any situation, especially when it had to do with the country’s integrity and sovereignty.

WASCA is a sub-regional professional association with the sole mandate of integrating the West African region economically and socially through effective communication and information.

Mrs. Elizabeth Amkpa, General Manager, GOTV Nigeria (left), with other staff during the launch of GOTV in Calabar, recently.