National Orientation Agency holds retreat to sensitize Nigerians

Last updated Dec 13, 2023

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has invited stakeholders for a two-day retreat in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital to discuss its strategies for carrying out its assignment of sensitization, publicizing and re-orienting the public.

The retreat, which opened on Tuesday, brings together stakeholders from the government, civil society, media, academia and the private sector.

They will discuss the agency’s thematic areas of focus, which are summarised by the acronym CLHEEAN: Crime, Lawlessness, Health Facility Inaccessibility, Environmental Degradation, Educational Setback and Deprivation, Abuse of All Forms, and Narcotics.

In his opening address, the Director General of NOA, Lanre Issa – Onilu, said the retreat aims to harmonize the specific and interrelated mandates of the agency under the over-arching CLHEEAN programme.

“We are re-engineering our process to drive the communication of government policies,” he said.

“This signals our readiness to lead the process as provided by law.”

He noted that the re-engineering is critical as part of efforts to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Theresa Nnalue, the agency’s director of orientation and behaviour modification, said the retreat would also establish an over-arching theme under which all the agency’s programmes would be carried out.

She expressed the agency’s commitment to fulfilling its mandate of creating awareness and mobilising the public for positive social change.

One of the participants at the event, Anike Adeshina, a representative of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), said that the ICPC mandates and activities feature in virtually all the seven over-arching themes, especially the ones on crime, lawlessness and abuse of all forms.

“The charge therefore is for the citizenry to embrace government’s intentions, such as this, in ensuing seamless delivery of good governance to citizens – the fight against corruption inclusive,” she said.

The retreat features presentations, panel discussions, group work and plenary sessions on various aspects of the CLHEEAN challenges and how to address them.

It is expected to end on December 13th with a communiqué and an action plan for the agency.