Nsirim Sets Agenda For Public Communication In Rivers

A cool wind of change is currently blowing across media circles in Rivers State. Everybody directly or indirectly involved in the media is beginning to feel it, one way or another.
Specifically, though, it can easily be felt, but only by those who stand for determination, hard work and quality. And, contrary to what the people have been used to, the spread of the coolness is becoming voluntarily infectious.
Virtually everyone that has felt it is eager to be part of the experience. The feeling is no doubt out of the ordinary! Better still, even as the ghost of the past that unconsciously saturates one’s imagination with a nostalgic air of military commando style manner of passing on directive to the media keeps replaying itself, the more one listens, the more one wills to identify with the cool change.
The originator of this cool breeze is the Rivers State Governor, His Excellency, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, CON, GSSR, POS Africa, who, by appointing the new Commissioner of Information and Communications, Pastor Paulinus Enyinda Nsirim, set the ball rolling for a new dawn in Public Communication practice in Rivers State. It is gradually becoming clear daily to be a dawn driven by an innate desire to bridge the gap between the Government and the governed through the media, for which the Commissioner wasted no time to path the way.
Shortly after being sworn-in and assigned the Information and Communications portfolio on December 30, 2019, Nsirim opened the doors wide spread to let the cool breeze in. He christened it a campaign for “creativity, innovation and productivity”, and, just about a week after, every word he has spoken has become enmeshed in the psyche of staff of all the media houses he visited.
As a prelude to his familiarisation cum media tour of all the Government-owned media organisations with a meeting with staff of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the mother of the four parastatals under the Ministry: Rivers State Newspaper Corporation, publishers of The Tide Newspaper; Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation (99.1 FM); and Garden City FM, as well as Government Printing Press, the official printing department of the State Government.
During his meeting with staff of the Ministry, the Commissioner’s key message circled around determination, creativity, innovation and productivity. According to him, journalists, represented by Information Officers in the Ministry, need to first be creative enough to think out of the box on the job of reporting from their beats in order to come up with creative ideas.
With such an idea, they would then need to have the determination to see the idea through to its logical conclusion, saying that “ideas rule the world”. Consequently, a lot will from henceforth be expected of them in the present dispensation.
“I will demand that Information Offices recreate themselves. One way to achieve that is through personal development…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.
“We will rejig the system because we need productivity. I will respect everybody, but I will not take any form of indolence”, the Commissioner said.
When he visited Wish FM, in what he called his “first official assignment as a Commissioner”, he repeated the same message, but in different words: he called on the media in the State to be development-minded in their reportage, knowing that the Governor’s appointment of a seasoned Journalist in the State as a liaison with media is a call to duty.
“If he (Governor) appointed me as Permanent Secretary, and posted me to the Ministry of Information, it was a bold statement, saying that this is your own, this is where he should function.
“Having functioned there for the past two years, he has made me commissioner. This brings us to a new dawn in the media industry in Rivers State”, he said.
Nsirim, whose statements were guided by the fact that the Governor is the first to appoint a core Journalist of the State, who had grown through the ranks in the Ministry of Information and Communications to become a Commissioner, hinted that it is the Governor’s way of showing his love for Journalists in the State, hence the call for journalist to be developmental in their reportage.
“My appointment as Commissioner for Information, as I’ve repeatedly said, is a vote of confidence for the journalism profession and media industry in Rivers State.
“That is why the onus is on us to prove to His Excellency, Nyesom Wike, the architect of the NEW Rivers Vision, the man who has begun to build a legacy for prosperity, the man whose passion for the development of Rivers State is unparalleled in the history of the State.
“It’s time for those in the media to show him that having recognised their own, they will support his policies and programmes”, he said.
He explained that it is the development strides of the Governor that has created the enabling environment for private businesses such as Wish FM to thrive.
At the Rivers State Television (RSTV), the Commissioner further extended the message to cover professionalism. He charged Journalists to be more professional, with the assurance that any one who stands out in this wise will attract a reward on the job.
“A television house is a platform for creativity. If any staff in RSTV is creative, you’ll be sought out. This is one profession where you have room to make sure that you distinguish yourself. The media house is a place where you can stir up your potentials and distinguish yourself, if you are creative.
“The time now calls for personal development. I want to see competition between reporters in news and current affairs and those in programmes over who would be more creative, who will develop things that we’ve not seen in RSTV before. I’ll be ready to partner with your management to honour such persons. Television is glamour: right from the dressing of newscasters to diction.
“I’m demanding professional competence from RSTV. I can’t be Commissioner for Information and when people tune to RSTV they see unprofessional conducts.  These are the little things that make the difference”, he said.
But, even in the heat of this passion, the Commissioner identified with the challenges of the workers.
“The welfare of workers will be given priority, but, I want us to please demonstrate, beginning from tomorrow, that there are core professionals here. So, I’m looking forward to an exciting time from tomorrow in terms of programming and content.
“His Excellency wants Rivers State to be a pride of all of us. He has demonstrated that with his style of governance. Your role is to use RSTV to key into that development agenda. In keying into that development agenda, we must be professional, dedicated, we need to do a lot of re-orientation, and we need to do a lot of personal development. If we do that collectively, we’ll make a mark”, the Commissioner stated.
The Commissioner’s message focused on productivity on the part of workers when he got to the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation (RSNC). He expressed confidence that everyone has the potential to be productive, and that it only requires a change of mind-set to activate such potential.
“Everyone has the potential to recreate this organisation. The idea that this is a government parastatal, so, people can come to work any time they like has to stop.
“It is time for productivity. It’s only someone that doesn’t want to make progress that will keep doing something the same way repeatedly and expect a different result”, he said.
“We are going to work collectively to show the world that this is a government-owned newspaper house where we can excel, be productive, and make profit.
“His Excellency is desirous to make Rivers State the destination of choice in this country, and he is not paying lip service to it. He is rather building the right environment, providing health care, education, agriculture, improving human capital development, etc.
“I’m challenging both management and staff to think outside the box, be creative and innovative. Let’s demonstrate to the world that we have men and women in this organisation that have the potentials to turn things around. We are demanding from you greater productivity and efficiency”, the Commissioner concluded.
At RSBC and Garden City FM, it was a reminder of the Governor’s developmental intention for the State, towards which the media is required to up their game in order to contribute their quota.
“He (Wike) is a man, who has come to reshape our destiny, make Rivers State a destination of choice. So, we must collectively use our various media organs to support the ‘NEW Rivers Vision’ of His Excellency.
“What I have come to do is to get us have a change of mind-set, re-orientation to tell ourselves that in the present circumstance, we can still make ourselves relevant.
“The ultimate goal is for us to reposition Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation, in the face of challenges of equipment and transmitter.
“My charge to all the state media houses is that within the limit of what we have, we need to demonstrate to the people of Rivers State that we have the potential to deliver.
“Throughout my working career, I have found out that if you put in your best, reward comes. Sometimes it might not come from the angle you expect it. If you don’t give, you will not get, and it translates to work. If you don’t put in your best, divinity will not smile at you”, the Commissioner concluded.
In all, the coolness of the wind of change currently blowing across the media in the State can be felt more in the charismatic manner in which the Commissioner presents it. The subtlety in his mannerism, which only portrays an in-depth knowledge and acceptance of the prevailing circumstance, but with a determination to develop, is one of the key qualities that have placed Pastor Paulinus Enyinda Nsirim as one who knows his onions in public communication. It also makes it clear enough that in this dispensation, only those who are ready to flow with the coolness of the breeze stand a chance to truly feel it.
Little wonder that serious minded Journalists in the State, both in the public and private sector, have consistently shown their readiness to be partner in the new development project of Rivers State.
Many have, in fact, expressed the belief that it is more in the manner of his delivery as a Commissioner than actually what he said, that seem to be making the difference. The only plausible explanation decipherable is the fact that having gone through the rank and file of media practice in the State, Pastor Nsirim, no doubt, knows the terrain and what it takes to make a difference.

Max-Alalibo is Special Assistant on Media to Rivers State Commissioner for Information & Communications.

Soibi Max-Alalibo