Sa’in Kilgori and former three- time Sokoto State Commissioner for Health , Works and Agriculture, Dr Muhammad Jabbi Kilgori, has praised the students and staff of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto on the sterling and outstanding performance of the university’s campus FM Radio station, which clocks one year this weekend.
Speaking after watching a 10 minute documentary produced by the department to mark the one year of broadcast by the Campus Radio station, the monarch admonished the student journalists and broadcasters to ensure professionalism , factual reporting, balance of stories and pursuit of responsible journalism.
He encouraged local residents of the catchment area to motivate and inspire their children to study mass communication , espousing that the world today is driven and controlled to a large extent by different levels of communication specifically and the media in general.
Kilgori who is a Senior Counsellor in the Sokoto Sultanate Council and also one of the 11 kingmakers of the Caliphate expressed delight on the successful accreditation and teaching of Mass Communication as a degree at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto , pointing out that it is something the citizens had been yearning for over a very long period of time.
The Head of Department of Mass Communication, Dr Abubakar Mijinyawa, told the story of the tortuous journey of setting up the Mass Communication department in Sokoto as well as acquiring the Radio license from the National Broadcasting Commission culminating in the starting of transmission a year ago.
The department now has about 200 students and about 12 tenure , adjunct and visiting lecturers.
The University’s Campus Radio which is run and managed by the students of Mass Communication transmits 10 hours of news and programmes daily serving the adjoining communities of Dundaye , Kwalkwalawa , Gomburawa, parts of Sokoto North , Kware , and Wamakko Local Governments as well as the university community.
The event was witnessed by former Director General, National Broadcasting Commission, also a former Commissioner of Information, Sokoto State, as well as Kogunan Sokoto.