Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr Garba Abari, has said the lack of personnel in its offices across the country is making it difficult for the agency to carry out its mandates.
He said some of the agency’s offices in the local government and across the states did not have any staff at all.
Abari spoke yesterday in Abuja when the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, visited NOA on a working tour.
He also said paucity of funds and lack of work tools were part of the challenges facing the agency in meeting its duties.
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Abari said the agency was planning a national conversation around the renewed hope agenda of the present administration, stressing the need to enlighten the people on the various activities, programmes and policies of the present administration as well as its implications for the growth and development of the country was necessary.
“The country is in dire need of change in values, the drop in values is evident in lack of respect for constituted authorities, cultism, banditry, fraud, and low appreciation for national cohesion among several other vices that bedevil our country today,” he said.
In his remarks, the minister said that for Nigeria to move forward and make progress, the citizens must respect and go back to the core values which the nation was known for.
He said it was important to protect and preserve the national symbols such as the Nigerian flag, placing it in at appropriate position rather than waiting for national football matches where the flags were waved for solidarity.
Idris who noted that most agencies always complained of lack of funds and working tools, amongst others, said there was a need to fix the character of the people to fit into the values of the founding fathers.