YOU ARE WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOURSELF, ADAMAWA COMMISSIONER OF INFORMATION TELLS NIGERIAN PRINTERS

Adamawa State Commissioner of Information Ahmad Sajoh has stated in clear terms that in whatever capacity, the Nigerian printers are the masterminds of either their own fortunes or misfortunes as they go about their professional trade.

Ahmad Sajoh, a human right activist and Journalist stated this in Lagos at a recent printers summit organized by DCS Integrated Media Limited when he was reacting to a question that bother on harmonization of the printing sector so as to have a unified whole. Before now, there is a wide believe especially among professionals that the lackluster nature of the industry and its unproductive status is a direct function of maladministration of the Muhammed Lawal led Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON).

According to Ahmad, “The responsibility of government – whether Federal or State – is to create enabling business environment for those in the business sector. Adamawa State for instance, has today a policy that accommodates every printer but first are those who are academically qualified to practice. This is not discriminatory, but a calculated effort of the government of Adamawa State to ensure that our people are educated and formally exposed to trends both locally and globally. We have also ensured that to be qualified to work in our State Government owned printing press, you must be a printer with proofs. As a matter of policy, we do not put round pegs in a square hole; if you are not a printer, you cannot head the printing press”.

“All of this explanation is to further buttress why I think and believe that the issues of disunity in the printing sector is a product of what the industry practitioners make of it. Internal rancour is not the making of the government. What government ought to do was done as far back in 2009 when the sector was licensed with the establishment of the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON). I know that the aim of the institute include to run and manage the interest of the industry. How the programmes are run is not the business of the government. But what is paramount is that industry persons now have a legal backing to operate. They are to use it well”.

Ahmad whose Information Ministry oversees the activities of the State Government owned printing press in Adamawa added “CIPPON is chattered; which means that it has legal backing; it has a law behind it to regulate and certify people before they can be regarded as professional printers, what is happening in your printing profession is that the leadership has gone underground and without vision; and the subjects are now doing what I call “follow follow”.