Media professionals and public office holders in Kwara State have been charged to prioritise documentation of events to enhance credibility, transparency, and future referencing.
The Commissioner for Communications, Bola Olukoju, gave this charge while
speaking in Ilorin, the state capital, at the closing ceremony of a five-day training on documentary production of project achievements and impact organised by the State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (Kwara L-PRES) in partnership with the FOUR ICONS Premium Limited.
Kwara L-PRES is a World Bank-assisted project under the State Ministry of Livestock Development that is focused on boosting livestock production and resilience in the State.
Participants, who were largely media professionals, were drawn from across media organisations, and public offices, including the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on New Media Olayinka Fafoluyi Solace; Senior Special Assistant on Communication, Ibrahim Abdullateef; and Deputy Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mashood Abdulrafiu Agboola.
Olukoju, who described the training as crucial, noted that it has gone a long way to broaden the knowledge of participants in documentary production and how to use artificial intelligence tools to enhance their productivity.
“Training in documentary production is a way to go because the power of documentation cannot be rivalled. The art of storytelling is how we get our story outside. We don’t want governance to be like something we just cook up. We want a human feeling angle to it. That is why we want people to understand the art of storytelling,” Olukoju told reporters on the sidelines of the event.
“This training is very important because we were taught about techniques of documentary production, effective progress reporting, how to use pictures to tell a proper story, and how to understand and apply different AI tools to enhance our works.
“A lot of people believe AI is going to take over their jobs. That is not so. AI will only amplify what you already know, and as a creative tool, you cannot do without it. You just have to try and align your brand with AI.”
The Commissioner, who was also a participant, commended Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for approving the training and his government’s vision for digital inclusion.
Kwara State Coordinator for the L-PRES project, Olusoji Oyawoye, who delved extensively on their activities, said they have so far organised over 2,000 series of training for different stakeholders, including agricultural extension agents, livestock farmers, butchers, and abattoir workers, among others.
He listed some of the topics the training has focused on, including ruminant and crop residue usage, bull fattening, commercial fodder production and value chain addition, meat handling protocols and good hygiene practices, occupational health and safety management, and reduction of climate change impacts through climate-smart agriculture and early warning meteorological systems.
Olusoji appreciated the Governor for making the job easy for his office, saying that his tremendous support has helped him to record a greater success.
He, therefore, appealed to media practitioners in the State to continue to support the L-PRES project by adequately reporting their activities to the public.
On her part, Aishat Onusi, a Resource Person from FOUR ICONS Premium Limited, noted that in a development project, documentation is not just record-keeping, but a proof of work, evidence of impact, and the foundation for learning and accountability.
“Without proper documentation, efforts or work done risk being forgotten, unrecognised, or duplicated,” Onusi said.
