President Muhammadu Buhari has backed the reopening of Nigeria information centres abroad towards improving the image of the country.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Dr. Shade Yemi-Esan, disclosed this to State House correspondents after leading the ministry to brief the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
She also said President Buhari sought for better welfare for journalists in the country and increase fight against piracy in order to boost welfare of Nollywood stars.
She said: “We also talked about external publicity and the possibility of re-opening the federal information services abroad. The President has said he wants to improve the image of Nigeria and one of the ways we can do that is by the reopening of these centres abroad. So, he was all for it and said that we will work together to ensure that we do that.
“He also raised concerns about piracy in Nollywood and he has instructed us to work harder to ensure that the producers of Nollywood films get what is due to them and that we reduce piracy to the barest minimum.”
On the welfare of media practitioners, she said: “I think it was last week that one of the newspapers was shut down because of non -payment of salaries. I think that should not be heard of in a country like Nigeria.
“Mr. President frowns at things like that, the welfare of every Nigerian, especially journalists is one of the major concerns that we have.”
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