National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency in Nigeria, NESREA says there is a need for training and retraining of Environmental reporters for effective reportage of the agency’s activities.
The Director General of the Agency, Dr Innocent Barikor said this when the Environment Media Correspondent Association of Nigeria, EMCAN, paid him a courtesy visit in his office, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
He said training and retraining will help the reporters to understand the concepts and terminologies in the environment space, hence enriching their work.
‘I want to assure you that we will work with you, we will partner with you, we will sit down with you, and we also want to ask that when once you see things that are not properly done, let us know you are pressmen. There are things you know that we don’t know. So you shouldn’t think that, because somebody is sitting here as a DG, that he knows it all.’
‘Because you already have experience in what you’re doing, and nobody can take that awa
y from you. Let me also assure you that in the course of doing what we are doing, we also try to partner with you and promote your team in terms of our training. I want to assure you because we also realize that you also need some technical capacity in terms of understanding environmental issues’. He explained.
Dr Barikor said NESREA has a huge task ahead, but with the help of the Media Team, it is achievable.
‘As journalists and press people who are running the affairs of environment, it means that you must be on top of issues, because the issues are running very fast.’
‘And as an agency that is concerned with enforcing standards, promoting and ensuring that we regulate the society in respect of environment, the tax is huge, by the time you look at the mandate, it’s quite huge, and we cannot carry out this mandate without partnership with you, for me this meeting is very important.’ He said.
He also urged the EMCAN, to work closely with the agency particularly on environmental and related issues.
The Di
rector General, also appealed to the Environmental Media Correspondents Association not to hesitate to call the attention of the agency on issues that need more clarification.
In his remarks, Chairman Environmental Media Correspondents Association of Nigeria, EMCAN, Mr Chuks Oyema, said the visit was to congratulate the DG on his appointment and to also pledge the Association’s support to continue to work with the agency to carry out its mandate.
‘What we’re doing is to report what is happening in the environment sector in Nigeria and see how we can help. It’s our country, if it gets bad, it’s our country, if it gets good, it’s our country. So our role is to work with those who are in authority to see how we can make it better for our country.’
‘I’m sure what you’re bringing on board here is to see what you can do to make our country better. I want to congratulate you, Mr. DG the association is very much ready to work with you, we’re going to support you to take NESREA to a very big level.’ He said.
Natio
nal Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency in Nigeria, NESREA, is an environmental agency of the federal government of Nigeria that was established by law in 2007 to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment for Nigerians.
The agency functions as a Parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Environment, and it is headed by a Director General.
Source: Voice of Nigeria