Unizik Mass Comm Summit: Peter Obi’s Media Consultant nominated for mentorship lecture

By Our correspondent

Valentine Obienyem, a media consultant to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Mr Peter Obi, has been nominated by the Department of Mass Communication of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Anambra State,
for mentorship lecture for the students of department during its summit scheduled for Thursday this week

Head of Department of Mass Communication , Dr Chioma Agbasimelo disclosed this on Monday in at press briefing.

She said Obienyem was chosen because of dexterity and deep knowledge in journalism.

She listed other speakers on the occasion to include: Head of Department of Mass Communication, Paul University, Prof Chinwe Uzochukwu, Prof Stella Okunna as Chairman and lead paper presenter, respectively.

She said the decision to hold the summit was to give practical knowledge to the students of all the genres of mass communication for stress in their areas of interests and specialty

She said, “Here in the department, we have noticed lots of issues, including graduating students without having the area of specialisation.

“Some, during their industrial training would be lost to as what to do and how to go about it. This informed the decision of the conference committee of the department to organise the summit.

“The summit is targeted at enlightening the over 1270 students, including year one who are about 300 who don’t have any area they’re craving for.

“We want to change the narratives so that right from first year they will have areas of specialisation and can fit into the newsroom on graduation.

“Currently, most institutions are gradually unbundling their Mass communication department. We’re in the process here and will soon be done.

“We’ve assembled resource persons from different fields. Our keynote speaker will be Valentine Obienyem. We chose him because he’s grounded in Mass Communication, having been journalist for years. He is a lawyer with an LLB and mass communication qualifications..

“We also chose him because we know he’ll imbibe in the students the quest to read and pass and do well in the field.

“Other speakers are Prof Chinwe Uzochukwu, HOD Mass comm, Paul’s University, as Chairman, Prof Stella Okunna as lead paper presenter, as well as Vice Chancellor, Prof Charles Esimone and Faculty Dean as hosts.

“We’re going to couch the students in plenary sessions with CEO, Anambra State Signage and Advertising Agency, Mr. Mike Odili, UNIZIK PRO, Mrs Chike Ene, Mr. Elvis Ohanyele, Comrade Alloy Attah, and others as handlers.”

Agbasimelo expressed optimism that the students’ appetite and quest for specialties would improve after the summit.