LAGOS - The management of Nigerian Breweries (NB) plc has explained that the media has played a critical role in the development of all spheres of manufacturing in the country particularly the brewery sub sector of which it is a key player.
The public Relation Adviser of the company, Mr. Yusuf Ageni who disclosed this in a chat with journalists during the flag off of the second edition of the Golden Pen Award, said journalists, in spite of their role as members of the fourth estate of the realm, are seldom recognized for the duties they carry out.
He added that despite the hazards and low morale media men sometimes face, his company, NB has enjoyed a very warm relationship with the Nigerian media over the years, a partnership which he described as most cherished and for which it intends to continue to build and improve upon.
In his words, “this award, we believe presents us with yet another opportunity to nurture this relationship.
We therefore intend to keep faith with it and build it into one of the most sought after awards in the industry”
At the maiden edition of the award in 2008, NB opened the competition only for the print media with a promise to improve on it this year.
The success achieved last year received some wild criticism from some senior journalists. They could not understand why NB restricted write ups to be on them and why they could not set up a clear topic for journalists to write on.
Mr. Ageni at the briefing noted that the competition is so designed because the judges may not have all the time to go through such write ups.
The 2009 edition has the addition of the photo-journalists in the competition.
The Public Relation Adviser further stated that the competition is part of the organisation’s corporate social responsibility by investing heavily in the development of talents in various fields using different corporate and brand platforms.
According to him, “the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Award is part of this strategic initiative to support national development as a demonstration our commitment to winning with Nigeria . This award, we believe presents us with yet another opportunity to nurture this relationship. We therefore intend to keep faith with it and build it into one of the most sought after awards in the industry”
Speaking on the exclusion of the Broadcast media in the competition, Mr Ageni said, management is fashioning out ways of incorporating broadcast journalists into the competition as it was still facing the challenge as to what is not commercial that they (NB) have to pay for.
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