By JAPHET ALAKAM

National Institute for Cultural Orientation’s (NICO) bid to actualising its aim of harnessing Nigeria’s cultural resources to meeting the challenges of social integration, peace, unity and national development got a boost last week when it matriculated about seventy students into its  2012/2013 Diploma and post graduate Diploma programmes.

National Institute of Cultural Orientation’s (NICO), a  parastatal in  the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation is  charged with the vision of energising the various cultural establishments towards serving as a catalysts for economic and technological progress  in the country.

The occasion which was attended by scholars, writers, culture administrators, students and their family members and friends of the institution also witnessed the presence of Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Edem Duke, who was the Special Guest of Honour ,while Prof. Shamsudeen O.O Amali, Vice Chancellor, Nassarawa State University, Keffi was the Guest of Honour.

In his opening remarks, Culture Minister, Edem Duke commended the management and staff of the institute for ensuring that through the platform of the NICO training school, Lagos, cultural officers at the Federal, State and Local government levels are trained to reposition them for effective service delivery.

Duke who was represented by Mr Johnson Odekina, a director in the ministry reiterated that the present administration attaches priority attention to human development as it is critical in fostering the desired transformation, adding that it is gratifying that the desired goal is achieved through the training and retraining of the people.

He also commended the institute for modifying its annual workshop on repositioning cultural workers for improved productivity, noting  that such has gone a long way in updating their knowledge and skills and  in enhancing their professional competence.

On his part, the Guest of Honour, Prof. Shamsudeen O.O Amali, Vice Chancellor, Nassarawa State University, Keffi congratulated the students for the unique privilege of attending the school, which he described as the only institute charged with the important role of training public officers on the rich Nigerian arts and culture.

He disclosed that the Nassarawa State University, Keffi identifies with the mandate of NICO and pointed out that the school has begun the process of affiliation with  the training school, adding that  as soon as the process is finalized by the NUC and the Federal Ministry of Education, the senate of of the university will award diplomas and post- graduate diplomas to the students of the training school.

The Executive Secretary/CEO of the institute, Barclays Ayakoroma described the occasion as “ special in the history of the school”, as it marks the first time a delegation from  Nassarawa State University, Keffi  would grace the occasion.

He stated that the training school was established to providing professional training for the culture sector and that since inception in 2008, that the school has successfully trained a total of two hundred and thirty four cultural officers.