By Our Correspondent
The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr Jibrin Ndace, has sought the support of the station’s staff to reposition it to compete with its peers globally.
Ndace made the call during his first visit to the Lagos Office of the Broadcast House on Thursday.
“I require the staff support. The staff will make things happen and it is their institution, a national patrimony. So, we all need to work together.
“Also, the staff should be frank, sincere and open to me. If there are issues around the institution, do not hide them.
“I am coming with the mindset to make a change. But that will not be possible without the support of men and women who make things happen,” he said.
The director-general said his focus would be to reposition VON in line with its mandate as the authority voice of Nigeria.
Its mandate is telling Nigerian stories to the world and compete with its peers around the world, he added.
According to him, achieving such repositioning would require leveraging on new technological innovations. And putting the welfare of staff as the bedrock of his leadership paradigm shift.
“VON is a brand and Lagos office is strategic. So, getting it back to the values and how it was by the founding fathers, is also a priority.
“So, it is going to be a holistic approach of not just making VON to carry out its mandate. But we also need to reposition it; rebrand it.
So, that when people visit, they know that it is an institution,” he said.
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Ndace said also he would prioritise the welfare of members of staff of the institution.
“Welfare is not just about tangible; there is also intangible; training, office accommodation and several other things. Even people being happy in their own office, is also part of the welfare.
“Their attitude; how they are relate with management, also makes the staff very happy,” Ndace said.
Speaking with newsmen later, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, VON Chapter, Ms Jumoke Falayi-Johnson, expressed optimism over the promise made by the new DG to prioritise staff welfare.
“Our expectations from the current DG is that there will be a change in the ways staff are treated in VON.
“An organisation should not just be about the job; the engine room of any organisation is the human resource before the machines.
“No matter how important the machines are, no matter how technologically-driven the organisation is, human resources is still key.
“The humans responsible for the job are equally important, and what you put in is what you get when it comes to human resources.
“There is the importance of training, staff welfare and job advancement. These are our expectations from the current DG.
And we hope he is empowered and has the strength to achieve all of these,”’ Falayi-Johnson said.
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