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COVID-19: FCTA Partners NOA Advisory Committee On Awareness, Sensitization

Published

5 years ago

June 27, 2020

Joel Ajayi

The FCT Administration will partner with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the FCT Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 to draw up strategies for the implementation of new sensitization and awareness campaigns in the fight against COVID-19 in the Federal Capital Territory.

This was the highpoint of a meeting chaired by the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello with the Director General of the National Orientation Agency, Dr Garba Abari and the Chairman, FCT Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19, Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar Friday in Abuja.

While addressing the press after the meeting, the FCT Minister said that the earlier partnership with the organized private sector coordinated by the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee saw the FCT waging a largely successful campaign against COVID’ 19 with the provision and deployment of adequate bed spaces, palliatives, medical supplies and equipment and personnel.

However, Malam Bello submitted that the FCT was faced with an even bigger challenge taking into consideration the fact that many residents were in denial about the dangers of the virus and therefore not taking the necessary preventive measures against its spread. This therefore necessitated the employment of new communication strategies to spread the message.

In the words of the Minister, “this partnership is aimed at re-invigorating the FCTA’s community communication strategies in the bid to save lives and livelihoods”.

It was therefore agreed at the meeting that an ad-hoc committee be established to work out new communication strategies to be deployed in this next phase of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Committee will be Co-chaired by the DG NOA and Chairman of the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee and consist of members drawn from the FCTA, the NOA and the Advisory Committee.

Also speaking, the NOA DG Dr Garba Abari, said that the meeting further brought to the fore the robust partnership between the FCTA and the private sector in the fight against the coronavirus.

He said the new sensitisation strategy to be tentatively known as the COVID-19 New Normal FCT Response intends to go beyond just creating awareness but to begin the process of behavior modification and change of the citizenry. This new strategy he continued is intended to ensure that citizens take personal responsibility for their health.

The NOA, DR Abari added, had the experience and expertise to take the new message to the streets, neighborhood, places of worship and traditional institutions and also create an awareness on the nexus that exists between the containment of the disease and personal responsibility. He also said that the NOA possessed the necessary expertise and experience to spread the new message.

In his Comments Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar said that it was necessary to come up with a coherent communication strategy to reach the people as many of them were not obeying the basic guidelines and protocols put in place by the relevant authorities to prevent the spread of COVI’19.

Also at the meeting were the Permanent Secretary FCTA, Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa, the Chief of Staff to the FCT Minister, Malam Bashir Mai’ Borno, the FCTA Director of Information and Communications, Mrs. Stella Ojeme and other Members of the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19.

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Featured

CELEBRATING A CENTURY-OLD CIVIL AVIATION SECTOR TRAJECTORY IN NIGERIA

Published

3 weeks ago

December 1, 2025

The Gleamer

This week, millions of Nigerians and others across the globe will join the Ministry of Aviation and Space Development under the irrepressible leadership of the Honourable Minister, Festus Keyamo(SAN),and all the notable Aviation sector stakeholders in and outside the country,in celebrating a century of Nigeria’s civil aviation history.

There is no doubt that under the present leadership of the Honourable Minister and within the short spell of time in his stewardship,he has consciously and intentionally embarked on a “silent revolution” for the industry with very veritable and laudable landmarks that have consistently grown the industry.

Some of these spirited efforts for instance have consequently led to trust restoration amongst international lessors, financier,any global partners.Of note also is assidiously working for the full domestication and implementation of the “Cape Town Convention Agreement” ,which gives Airlines access to modern fleets of competitive rates as well as enforcement of IDERA(Irrevocable Deregulation and Export Request Authorization).

Having well applauded these vital contemporary initiatives,it will also be germane to cast our minds in retrospect by taking a peep into our history over several decades to recognise some of the notable forebears in the industry whose impressionabl efforts cannot be overlooked,as they took the impetuous initiatives of breaking the ice at the nascent stage.
It will aptly corroborate the truism which says that… ” a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”.

The above is vividly captured from a tribute by the First Republic Minister of Aviation Chief Mbazulike Amaechi at the funeral of late Igwe of Oba,HRH Peter Ezenwa(MFR) in 2018.
It states inter alia…”One significant thing I will say many people didn’t know is that the first indigenous airline that was to run in Nigeria was known as “STANDARD AIRLINE”.It was founded in 1966 by a company formed by Igwe Peter Ezenwa from Oba,and had on board,John Nwankwu from Abagana,Edward Ebo from Ezinifitte,(all from Anambra state),John Anyaehie from Nkwerre in Imo state,and lastly my very self Mbazulike Amaechi.
The five of us later acquired two brand new aircrafts,and had four pilots,namely;Unachievable,John Emma Ngwu and Felix Offor,who was to be the General Manager of the airline.
But just about the time for the take-off the crisis of the military takeover erupted in the North as the planes were on their way for delivery to us.In fact the bank handling the transaction was to allow the planes to be flown from the USA,but the news of the war broke out in 1967,the insurance company cabled for the cancellation of the deal as they will not be able to cover the risk cost of aircrafts being flown into war zone.
So,we asked the manufacturers to take the two aircrafts back to their country and hold on for six months with the hope of that the war will end within the requested time frame,but the war didn’t end as thought.We consequently asked for refund and they deducted some money and refunded the balance which was deposited at the London branch of African Continental Bank(ACB).

When the government took over the operations of ACB,we still hoped for the refund but unfortunately were disappointed that the Federal government took over the whole money and we lost everything.”

Further in line with our historical perspective,it will also be pertinent some of the later years reformists in the likes of Engr Onyereri and Harold Demuren who advertently sponsored some far reaching regulations that eventually steered the industry towards greater autonomy with the passage of the 2005 Civil Aviation Act,which I was also a prime participant of in my capacity as an Aviation sub chair in then House of Representatives.

As we mark this great century milestone,and with the clear evidential pathway set out by the current managers of the industry under the indomitable leadership of Honourable Minister, I do not see the sky posing any limitations as they say,but rather availing new vistas of limitless growth opportunities.

CONGRATULATIONS.

Hon Chidi Nwogu
Former member House of Representatives & presently Governing Council member
,African Aviation and Aerospace University,Abuja.

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