Nigeria National Communication Policy is discussed in this article and we hope you find it informative and helpful for your research.
Nigeria National Communication Policy
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The Business Dictionary defines policy as the set of basic principles and associated guidelines, formulated and enforced by the governing body of an organization, to direct and limit its actions in pursuit of long-term goals.
Why does the Nigerian communication sector or any sector at all, need policies? This question will be answered in this article.
The communication policy in Nigeria was formulated in the year 1987. It passed through several stages and the seasoned eyes and suggestions of various experts including researchers, university professors who were carefully selected by the Ministry of Information and Culture, in conjunction with the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and some prominent mass communicators in the country.
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The multidisciplinary committee was to ensure that the policy would be all-encompassing and no stone left unturned.
The ideas and suggestions of all these experts were put together in a report which was deliberated on and scrutinized by the National Council on Information Culture held in Bauchi State between 17th and 20th of March, in the year 1987.
As stated in the policy document, “This policy package represents a most painstaking and careful distillation of ideas from an immense volume of contributions by intellectuals, professionals, practitioners, and administrators in all core, related and supportive fields of mass communication.”
The purpose of philosophy or ideology is not only to ensure uniform control over most processes of interactions among citizens of a state but also to orient thought and action in a unidirectional path towards stated national goals.
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Communication Policy in Nigeria
Below are the policy objectives which makes up the “why” for communication policy in Nigeria:
1. To identify critical or central organs, mechanisms,s or institutions of our society that are involved in the development of Nigeria’s communications system, both internally and externally.
2. To provide guidelines for the mobilizations and development of those institutionalized mechanisms in the above to achieve national objectives and aspirations.
3. To mobilize all structures in society in a chain system relationship for the propagation of national goals and objectives.
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4. To evolve rational and systemic parking of all communication media and resources for the achievement of national goals.
5. To establish an operational boundary for the media industry.
6. To promote and consolidate the national interest.
7. To ensure better management of communication resources to facilitate development and nation-building.
8. To harness our immeasurable cultural wealth to develop an authentic Nigerian culture, cultivate a deep sense of patriotism in our people, and propagate a worldwide distinctive national identity.
9. To further, at home and abroad those cardinal principles upon which our nation and constitutions are founded and which protect and enhance Nigeria’s national interests and security in the international system.
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10. To encourage creativity and promote indigenously rooted innovation for the collective good rather than for individual self-expression.
