Sharpening Communication Tools Of Information Officers In Delta

By JOHNSON EBIGIDE

A carpenter was laboriously trying to cut a piece of wood with his hand saw, the jigsaw of which was blunt. For hours, he sweated it away, dissipating his energy and wasting away quality time; yet, his goal of sawing the wood into two appeared a near impossible!

Frustrated, he threw the hand saw aside, sweating profusely and tired. However, after simmering down from his thoughtlessness, it dawned on him the urgent need to find a way to sharpen his hand saw and try cutting the piece of wood again. And that was it ! What he laboured for hours was done in minutes !

It was such consideration that informed the need to organise a training workshop for some information officers in the Delta State Ministry of Information in far away Lagos. It was to sharpen their communication capacity for effective and seamless discharge of the onerous task of informing the public of the policy thrust of the state government and feeding it With the pulse of the same public it was in office to serve.

The two-day intensive training workshop was held at the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Alausa in Lagos State from Thursday, September 9 through Friday September 10, 2021. The utmost goal of the training exercise was to impact requisite modern communication knowledge on the participants, particularly from the angle of trending Information Communications Technology (ICT).

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A renowned Public Relations expert, consultant and chief executive of NCCI Limited, the organising consult for the training, Nkechi Ali-Balogun, facilitated the training with an array of wonderful resource persons who tasked the mental capacities of the participants, stretching them to the zenith of thinking hard for themselves before getting the meat of the various discourses. It was awesome!

First, it was Charles O’Tudor, a foremost Nigerian brand strategist, public analyst, businessman and principal consultant of the Adstrat Branding Management Consortium, to take the podium on “How to Reposition Your Brand to Stay Ahead of Post COVID-19.” The gangling O’Tudor emphasised that branding oneself was indispensable on the path to success, maintaining that it conferred reliability and trust on the branded product, service or personality.

Next was the facilitator herself, Ali-Balogun. She dwelled on “Stakeholders Relations, Engagement and Mapping in Post COVID-19.” A very inspiring speaker. She elucidated energetically on the role of various stakeholders, their indispensability and the need to segment them into groups for effective reach and tapping gainfully from their knowledge and services.

Then came the vibrant former public affairs manager with Cadbury Nigeria PLC., Chidonum Nwakanma. He took two vital lectures to rap off the activities of the days. They were ” Storytelling is a Strategic Tool for Communication Managers” and “The Concept of Rebranding and the Role of Public Relations”. He expatiated on the historical perspective of storytelling, using the Aristotle tripod model of Pathos, Ethos and Logos to drive home the intrinsic essence of every story. He argued that simplicity was the hallmark of a good story, and urged the participants to speak and write in a simple language their various audiences would comprehend.

Upon the resumption the next day, the participants were segmented into four groups with the charge for each group to retrospectively brainstorming on each of the lectures delivered the first day and come up with a representative of the group to address the participants. That, again, was quite exciting as each speaker spoke eloquently, marshalling their points in a most orderly rendition, so much so that at the end of the group exercise, Ali-Balogun and her support staff nodded their heads in deference to the participants for their quick absorbing of the knowledge impacted on them.

Thereafter, the facilitator climbed the podium once again to take another lecture on “Effective Communication in the 21st Century.” Apart from the elaborateness on trending communication principles, the participants were made to understand the difference between information and communication. She said that the former was simply a one- way channel of a message from the speaker to the receiver while the latter is more functional in message sharing as it has two-way passage of the message from the sender to the receiver and back to the sender. She advised against the use of certain administrative jargons, such as “sequel”, following”, “I am directed”, etc., particularly ” the general public ” and “standing on the already established protocol”, among very many other obsolete coinages.

The lecture hall was uproariously electrified with the sudden arrival of the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, from Asaba to have a first hand feel of the training and to ensure the welfare of the participants he sent to Lagos for the training.

After welcoming him by the facilitator, Mr Aniagwu addressed the participants. He said that he was not interested in someone working so hard without results, adding that applying oneself intelligently, effectively and deploying available resources tactically towards the actualisation of set goals informed his approval for the training.

He added that the choice of Lagos for the training was deliberate, saying that it would afford the participants a new environment to unwind and return later to their base in Asaba, refreshed with new vigor and knowledge to work towards the realisation of the Stronger Delta vision of the Okowa Administration in Delta State. He, therefore, enjoined the participants to exhibit the knowledge gained from the training in the discharge of their duties as information officers in the state, just as he urged them to extend same knowledge indirectly to those that were not privileged to participate in the training.

After his address, Mr. Aniagwu joined the participants to take the last lecture for the day. It was taken by Celestine Achi. Achi tutored the participants on “Personal Effectiveness in the Workplace”. The message from him was for the participants to view every situation critically, act proactively and adaptable to changing situations in the discharge of their duties.

Yes, the training, no doubt has not only sharpened the communication tools of the lucky participants, but their mental alertness to their responsibilities as information managers in Delta State is aglow.