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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Governor of Kogi State and Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (retd) have both bagged Niger Delta awards by Niaja Live TV.
While Bello was awarded the Man of the Year by the Bayelsa State based online media outfit, Dikio was awarded the Niger Delta Peace Ambassador.
The award ceremony held in Yenagoa which also featured a lecture with the theme, “The role of Social Media in Strengthening Public Institutions in Nigeria”, to commemorate its fifth anniversary also awarded other notable Nigerians.
According to the organisers, Bello was given the award for being youth friendly and rated high in the area of infrastructural development and enthronement of peace in Kogi state.
It said Dikio was given the award for promoting and sustaining the peace in the Niger Delta region through the Amnesty Office.
The organisers while noting that Dikio since his appointment had stabilized the PAP deploying it as a vehicle for peace and stability of the region also observed that under Dikio, the amnesty programme was living up to its original mandate.
Delivering the lecture, an expert in public affairs, Dr. John Idumange, said Nigeria was faced with an irony of having abundant human and material resources but relegated to the backwaters of development.
He said most of the public institutions established to promote good governance had either been compromised or harassed by systemic instability.
“The truism is that in Nigeria, most reforms are either partially successful or monumental failures. This is largely attributable to the weak institutions, which lack the capacity to implement and sustain such reforms.
“Policy interventions and implementation mechanism are often vitiated by weak institutions. Weak institutions are at the root of low Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Genuine efforts at re-engineering the bureaucracy and government apparatus have only recorded minimal success.
“Now, social media platform can be deployed to play a role in strengthening the institutions for efficient and effective policy packaging and implementation”.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer of Naija Live TV Mr Saint Mienpamo Onitsha, said the outfit had gone through various challenges but had remained consistent with the support of some individuals and organizations.
He said: “Today Naija Live TV has a followership base of over two million persons in all of our channels. This of course is a result of our diligence, hard work, and consistency in service delivery over the past years and counting”.
Others, who received awards, were Senator Moses Cleopas, the lawmaker representing Bayelsa Central; Preye Oseke, the lawmaker representing Southern Ijaw Federal Constituency, a former Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Monday Obolo Bubou and Chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Kia Nigeria and Zeetin Engineering founded by Mr Azibaola Robert,
