The Nasarawa State government says it will partner Nasarawa State Students Association (NASSA) to promote cultural activities across tertiary institutions.
Alhaji Mohammed Lawal, the Commissioner for Information Culture and Tourism, said this while receiving the association’s executives on a courtesy visit in his office on Friday, in Lafia.
Lawal said the partnership would help to reawaken cultural consciousness amongst students.
The executives of the association visited the commissioner to brief him on NASSA’s plans to organise a cultural festival for students of Nassarawa origin in tertiary institutions across the country, in April.
According to Lawal, the state is blessed with rich cultural heritage, hence the need to partner relevant organisations such as NASSA, to harness and promote the cultures for posterity.
He commended the association for conceiving ideas that would promote cultural activities in tertiary institutions across the country.
The commissioner then assured the association of the ministry’s support, especially in terms of media coverage and other logistics, to make the event a huge success.
“We are going to partner with you to make your cultural festival a huge success. The mandate of the ministry is sectoral, Information Culture and Tourism and the mandate of culture is to harness cultural potential that abound in the state,” he said.
Lawal noted that the state government, under the leadership of Gov. Abdullahi Sule, was working hard in prioritising the well being of students of Nasarawa state origin in all tertiary institutions across the country.
“The Government of Nasarawa state is making frantic effort to see to the betterment of students generally across tertiary institutions and that is why we have scholarship board that is still functioning,” he said.
He enjoined the students union body to support the programmes and policies of the government, while advising them to be good ambassadors of the state in their various institutions of learning.
Speaking earlier, the President General of NASSA, Mr Sani Jibrin, said they were at the commissioner’s office to seek for partnership toward promoting ideas and activities of the union, across the states and beyond.
Jibrin further noted that the association was working toward organising cultural festival for Nasarawa state students in tertiary institutions across the country to keep them abreast of their cultural heritage. (NAN)