By Umar Bayo Abdulwahab
Ilorin
Ilorin campus of the International Institute of Journalism of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (IIJ/NUJ), Ilorin campus, yesterday matriculated new students for its 2015/2016 academic session.
Registrar of the institute, Elder Afolabi Olusola, who administered matriculation oath to the newly admitted students, said the institutes would not compromised standard.
He said the Institute’s curriculum was designed to train journalists that would in turn contribute positively to nation building.
In his address, the coordinator of the programme and sub-Dean, Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, Dr. Lukman Azeez, said the campus had assembled best brains of lecturers from the three universities offering degree and even post-graduate programmes in journalism.
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Dr Muyiden Akorede, urged the institute to come up with programmes that “will rival or beat what Nigeria Institute of Journalism (NIJ) Ogba in Lagos has done.”
He said the state-owned media were being repositioned to be among top best 10 in the country and number one in the state with a charge to The Herald to focus more on community reporting than competing with national dailies.
A former Chief Press Secretary to Kwara former governor of Kwara state, Alhaji Mas’ud Adepimpe, called on the state government to make it as a policy that anyone who would be employed as a journalist in the state-owned media and Ministry of Information must possess at least a Diploma in Journalism before such person “can practise in the state.”
Chairman of NUJ in the state, Comrade Abiodun Abdulkareem, said the Council revived the programme as part of measures to enhance professionalism through training of its members.
