Kaduna: Media Service Center Graduates, Matriculates Dev. Communication Students

By Frederick Peters, KADUNA.

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA– The Catholic Media service center, Kaduna has graduated its first set of students having undergone a 13 weeks certificate course in Development communication, while matriculating her new set of students for the next session.

The graduation and matriculation ceremony which held on Monday at the media service centre, Kaduna, attracted Media scholars, Journalists, participants, students ,wellwishers among others

Speaking the Deputy Director of the center, Rev.Fr. Anthony Bruno Shawuya in his remarks, said its vision and desire is to impact the development of the human person using best practices in media technology and programming; this why it has as its driving force the concept of media for human development.

” As part of achieving this vision, series of partnership, training and digital productions have been pursued by the Media Service Center (MSC) in recent years and one of which is the 13 week certificate course on Development Communication.

According to him, the course the centre is offering ” is the first of its kind in the whole of Kaduna state and the entire northern region of Nigeria. Its primal place is in the fact that the Media Service Center think tank conceived the idea even before the National University Council would collapse Mass Communication into 7 departments one of which is Development Communication.

” Today we are graduating the first set of beneficiaries of our programme on Development Communication and we are grateful to God for making it possible for us to achieve this feat. It started not without daunting challenges that almost derailed the initiative but we moved on anyway and we are here today. We shall improve from our mistakes at this first shot.” he added

He charged the graduating students, saying ” you are our ambassadors and in the course of your training you have brought some persons that saw what you were acquiring and showed interest. Some of you were quite unstable though but I believe your colleagues carried you along. Out there your challenges may come in various forms but surely you are equipped to face them and be of good service wherever you enlist. Be our good ambassadors.” he stressed

He further called for sustained collaboration with her Partners. the Knowledge For the Blind Initiative (KFBI), Utane Initiative for Girl Empowerment (UTIGE) for their continuous invaluable contributions to the development and dignity of humanity

.
He also appealed to spirited individuals and organizations for sponsorship of their programmes especially, ” media giants in and around Kaduna. You can support us in cash or in kind especially via equipment. You can equally partner with us for the training of your staff and students where necessary. There is so much we can do together to impact humanity” he reiterated

The cleric further said the training program is open to all people of all faiths and colours and intending students or participants across all ages; who want to learn and re-learn,

He maintained that as a registered corporate organization, it has further validates the program adding “this has actually opened the place to a lot of possibilities including this aspect of training,, so its a place where people increase their knowledge, get a wider horizon about what they are going to be doing in future

” for those that will be going into degree in tertiary institutions they certainly need this background; we have trained a lot of media practitioners that are out there doing us proud” he stated

Similarly, One of the new students, Priest of the Catholic Archdioce of Kaduna, Rev. Fr. Gabriel Oteikwu, while commending the initiative, said he became curious when he first got the news of the program at the last General Assembly ” I felt is a program that I need to participate, because the talk of the world today is communication, media and so on

” so I feel as a leader, there will be need for people to really follow the trend, so I want to get used to the whole thing and to see how I can really communicate to our people; so what really motivated me to be here is communications and we cannot do without communication in this age and to do that effectively you need to be acquainted with the basics of new modern means of communication” he added

He than urged his fellow priests to take advantage of the certificate course to update and upgrade themselves as time permits considering their busy schedules ” I really want to encourage them to be part of this program because the world is becoming so complex, because you cannot rely only on knowledge we had in the seminary to work all through, we really need to update ourselves, and get acquainted to function effectively in the various apostolates” he stressed

On his part, Mr Richard lnnaete, speaking on behalf of the graduands, says, it feels great to have been a part of the program, while commending their lecturers for treating them as family and bringing out the best in them said” we want to appreciate them for what they have done, we know impacting is not an easy task, but they created time, lecturing us to make us better people” he added

He also called on those yet to enrol to do so, as the opportunity is still on “there’s a need for more ideas, more knowledge, interms of media and of course relationship with others, coming here will make them know a lot of things and make you a better person” he reiterated

Founded in 2019, the school is expected to offer Courses within the period in Entrepreneurship, New media, Developed communication, Photography, Videography, Interpersonal communication, Communication skills for leadership among others, adding that it will also carryout online lectures for students who are not based in Kaduna.