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From: Obinna Odogwu, Ekwulobia
The Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, has approved an 18-month professional diploma programme for practicing journalists in Anambra State.
The programme was designed to enable practising journalists who have no background in the field of Mass Communication to acquire relevant procedural skills on the job.
The Chairman of the state’s council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Emma Ifesinachi, who approached the institution with the proposal for approval, said it had become necessary given the theoretical knowledge gap observed among the members of journalism profession.
He maintained that the programme, being the first in the country, would hopefully be replicated or adopted by the national body of NUJ to make it a nationwide programme.
Also speaking, the Dean of Social Sciences Faculty, Prof. Stella Okunna who facilitated the approval of programme, said that the department under her watch would do everything within possible to ensure it succeeds within stipulated time.
Responding, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Joseph Ahaneku, who played host to NUJ officials who paid him a thank-you-visit in his office, disclosed that the university would not relent in contributing to the growth of journalism profession.
Ahaneku who described the gesture as the institution’s corporate social responsibility in the development of the society, said the programme would further enhance the journalism legacy of late Zik of Africa whose name the institution bears.
