By Adeleye Adeyemi and Grace Alegba
Mr Muhammed Ali, the Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), says he will rejig the agency’s technology and quality of its news content for subscribers.
Ali made this known on Wednesday during his inspection of NAN, Lagos Operations’ facility and interactive meeting with the staff.
He said: “News content and infrastructure upgrade are crucial towards achieving the mandate of quality service delivery.
“I won’t mind relocating to Lagos, if need be, to be able to drive the transformation that will revolutionise quality content and service delivery.”
Ali added that since Lagos was the nation’s commercial nerve centre and the hub of journalism, NAN must leverage on technology to improve its operations for transformation.
Decrying the level of facility and equipment decay in the agency, the managing director assured of nationwide upgrade of NAN operations.
He praised staff for working and achieving success under harsh conditions.
He added: “If you get Lagos right, then you will get the whole nation right. I see a lot of enthusiastic staff prepared to do the work.”
According to the new managing director, Lagos is a very important significant hub which must drive President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
He called on the editorial department to work in collaboration with the other departments towards achieving the agency’s mandate of excellence.
“There should be a more corporate look to promote the NAN brand, and I commend the gender-friendly policy of having several females in employment.
“I promise to focus specially on addressing issues that will boost staff welfare and productivity in the state. A lot of things will be ‘Lagoscentric’,” he said.
The NAN managing director said that it would take magic for NAN to favourably compete in the media space, because of the poor condition of its facilities.
He stressed the centrality of the editorial department in NAN sustainability, adding that editorial staff should redouble efforts to churn out exclusive stories and ensure timely reportage.
Ali noted that staff of the agency were working hard but not doing smart work.
“We are working hard but we are not working smart.
“I promise you training and re-training of staff to better position them to be competitive in the technology-driven media space.
“And management will leave no stone unturned in its drive for NAN, being a digitally-based platform, to be upgraded to become competitive,” he said.
The NAN boss called for more supervision of the district offices for more grassroots level reports that would interest clients and increase demand for NAN content.
“We have to come together to change this depressing narrative” he said.
He also stressed that plagiarism of NAN products would no longer be accepted.
On staff unionism, Ali said that unions were not supposed to be in competition or opposition to the management.
He assured that management was determined to address issues of work tools, staff welfare and training, adding that he was looking forward to working with all staff.
He vowed to uphold the principle of merit in distributing rewards as staff keyed into President Bola Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda.
Also speaking, Mr Ephraims Sheyin, a Managing Editor with NAN, urged every staff to work hard and avoid leaving the work to a few people to do.
Sheyin called for quality reports that could compete in the news market, and urged editorial staff to do more of feature stories.
He stressed that the staff had the duty to use their contacts to seek new partnership for NAN that would help the agency address some of its challenges.
In his vote of thanks, Mr Kayode Olaitan, the Head, NAN Lagos office, called on staff to cooperate with the new managing director to take NAN to its “Eldorado”.
Members of staff such as Mr Ayodeji Fadipe, Chairman, Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers’ Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU), NAN Chapter and a former Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) President, Mrs Ifeyinwa Omowole, expressed concerns and made suggestions to the new managing director.
(NAN)
