Laide Akinboade
4 August 2008
Lagos — STAKE HOLDERS at the just concluded 39th meeting of the National Council on Information and Communications (NCIC) have expressed concern on the apparent ignorance of Nigerians over the hazards of avian influenza popularly called Bird flu.
The stakeholders said this recently, in Yenagoa capital of Bayelsa State and urged the Federal Government to get the citizenry more informed on the dangers of bird flu in the country.
This was stated in the communique released at the end of the five-day conference in the state, as a result of the new outbreak of bird flu noticed in some states of the country.
They observed, there is need for aggressive enlightenment in order to encourage food production in the country.
According to the communique, "Aggressive publicity should be stepped up sequel to the new outbreaks of avian influenza in Kano and Katsina States and the risk factors involved especially for those who make contact or prepare poultry products."
"Government at all levels are urged to evolve aggressive agricultural initiative to forestall food crisis and boost food production in the country. Fertilizers should be distributed promptly twice a year to states to correspond with the planting seasons."
They called on the 36 state governors and Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to establish archives for the preservation of records.
Earlier, the Minister of Information and Communication, Mr. John Odey, in his key note address noted that information in known world wide as an important tool for good governance and development and Nigeria is no exception to this reality.
Odey noted, "we live in an information age, where the wealth and productive capacity of nations is geometrically related to the information and communication infrastructure available to its populace.
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