|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  —  Jul 20, 2017 @ 13:40 GMT

SUNDAY Dare, executive commissioner, Stakeholder Management of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has urged Mass Communications students and media professionals to use imagery to promote national cohesion. The commission said the time has come for the nation to foster national cohesion using the force of logic rather than the logic of force.

Dare stated this at the Annual Lecture of Mass Communication Students Association, University of Lagos, on Wednesday, July 19. He described imagery as a representation of reality, adding that the nation has tangible realities from its daily lives of how imagery has helped to create a more perceptive understanding of our existence.

He cited the examples of the Nigerian flag and the Coat of Arms as two examples of the images, especially in terms of how they have helped to foster cohesion as mainstream symbolisms of the national or brand identity.

“What about the Nigerian National Pledge? Do we undertake the rendition sincerely or perfunctorily? How much of the real significance and meaning of these brand identities do people know? he queried, stating that “Herein lies our duty. Since communication is a creative science, as students and practitioners of communication, it is our responsibility to interpret the essence of the identities to the rest of the people because we are supposedly armed with the tools that prod a better understanding of the brand essence to the formation of national cohesion.”

According to Dare, to be able to play this role effectively, the country needs information and transforming knowledge of new ways to optimise creative enterprise and to deploy new skills that the country requires to nudge national cohesion.

“That cardinal principle and obligation required to deploy the knowledge as communication professionals operating in a multicultural society is to focus on the elements of our culture and social reality that tend to bond the people, not to emphasise on the differences – though knowledge of the differences and their recognition is important to shape our relationships,” he said.

He added that knowledge is today enabled by information and communication technologies. “There is no aspect or sphere of knowledge today that is not available on the Internet. For instance, when it comes to using imagery for communication, GIMP, an Image Manipulation Programme is available on the Internet, among many others, and it is free to download tool which can be used with digital photos to make creative touches (image composition, changing colour to black and white, picture editing, touch ups) to your snaps. All you need do is to download a piece of software first to enable you to install GIMP.

“Flickr is another of the available resource of the virtual world which combines as a networking site. Flickr is a way of sharing images and a basic membership is free. If you already have a Yahoo account then you can use that to sign up. Through Flickr, you can create an online photo album but there are a number of other ways to use this tool especially as a means of creative communication. Indeed, there are so many other applications and software that enable users to create imagery for fantastic creative and expressive communication. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are proven enablers and the Internet is the abode of these resources,” he said.

Dare said that “To have access and optimise the opportunities locked up on the Internet, you require robust broadband. One evidence of the centrality of technology in contemporary world is the fact that the most innovative countries are the most advanced and prosperous because investments in technology and innovations have been major sources of wealth creation. To underscore this point, we can easily recall that the top four most capitalised companies in the world are communication technology firms – Microsoft, Apple Google, and Facebook.”