By Patrick Ochei
The House Committee on Information under the leadership of the Majority Leader of Delta State House of Assembly and member representing Aniocha North Constituency, Hon. Engr. Emeka Nwaobi has met at the Assembly Complex and resolved to take the State Owned Media outfits – Delta Broadcasting Service (DBS Warri), Delta Broadcasting Service (DBS Asaba) and The Pointer Newspapers to an enviable height.
This way forward resolution was reached in a meeting which held on Wednesday 22nd May, 2024 with Hon. Nwaobi presiding while the chairmen of Boards and their GMs made presentations with regard to their operational activities.
The Chairman of House Committee on Information, Hon. Nwaobi insisted that conscious effort must be made by the broadcast stations and the newspaper outfit to become more productive, shore up their revenue base and promote the image and reputation of government of the day, irrespective of their teething challenges.
He however, assured that the Legislature would assist them in solving their problems which majorly border on high cost of power, obsolete working equipment and capital intensive production.
Nwaobi nonetheless, singled out the Board Chairman of The Pointer Newspapers, Dr. Ebenezer Okorodudu and profoundly commended him for his passionate effort to change the narrative in the Pointer Newspapers with a view to making it more productive.
The Commissioner for Information, Dr. Ifeanyi Michael Osuoza said the government had evaluated the challenges faced by the DBS Warri, DBS Asaba and of course, The Pointer and had come up with workable solutions to tackle them.
He said efforts are in top gear to move two transmitters from Ubulu-Uku substation to Warri and Asaba, to increase their production capacity while also looking forward to achieving modern and permanent solutions to the challenges.
Osuoza also commended Dr. Okorodudu for the creativity and credibility he has brought into the leadership of the Board of the Pointer Newspapers with a view to correcting some of the anomalies bedevilling it, thereby revealing that he was at a loss why the Ministry of Information could monthly spend over #11 million to produce the Pointer Newspapers without any result to show for it.
Earlier at the meeting, the Board Chairman of DBS Warri, Chief Moses Odibo, the GM of DBS Warri, Pastor Macolm Oteri, the GM of DBS Asaba, Mrs. Christine Emetulu and Chairman of the Board of The Pointer Newspapers, Dr. Ebenezer Okorodudu had made presentations detailing the challenges of their media outfits.
They had asked members of the House Committee on Information to assist them to revamp their organisations and get funding to run them; positing that they were frustrated.
Meanwhile, members of the Committee on Information which included Hon. Umukoro Perkins Awolowo of Sapele Constituency, Hon. Oloye Pereotu of Burutu 11 Constituency, Hon. Chief Benson Obire of Warri South 11 Constituency and Hon. Prince Emeka Osamuta of Ndokwa East Constituency had had the opportunity of asking questions with regards to the performance of the media houses, the state of their revenue base and their vision of revamping to achieve more results.
In a nutshell, the Ministry of Information and the Media Parastatals under it were asked to go and put machinery in place for better performances of the media agencies while also ordering them to begin to draw up monthly production chats that capture their income and expenditure.
