The Pointer ’ll Be Repositioned For Wider Spread ––Aniagwu Vows

BY PATRICK MGBODO

The Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, has taken the challenge of repositioning the state owned newspaper house, Delta Printing and Publishing
Company Limited (Publishers of The Pointer titles), promising its elevation to the status of a regional paper.

Visibly appalled by the dilapidated equipment and the physical decay of the organisation, Aniagwu commented during his inspection tour that the least the media house could become was
a regional paper and compete at national levels.

Bemoaning the work environment of the place which was practically in shambles, the commissioner admitted that such stifled atmosphere caould not motivate workers to give their best and promised to do all within his limits to inject life into the place.

“The Pointer cannot just remain a Delta State newspaper; the least you can aspire for is a regional paper and you are obviously not. In the old Bendel State, The Observer Newspaper competed
with Daily Times. If at that time, without the aid of internet, how come Pointer cannot even compete with anybody today?”

At the proposed site for the building of a permanent structure for the media house, Aniagwu mandated the Functioning Permanent Secretary, Mr. Paul Osahor, to kick start the process of building in
collaboration with the appropriate ministry(ies).

While conducting the commissioner round the structure, the General Manager of DPPCL, Mr. Monday Uwagwu, listed manpower, lack of printing press, underdeveloped permanent site, poor circulation, budget implementation and expenditure ceiling among the company’s plethora of challenges. In his address presented to the commissioner, Uwagwu impressed on the government to allow

The Pointer run its budget, develop its permanent site, procure a
viable printing press and “cessation of the ceiling on expenditure” among other demands.

“Today, The Pointer (DPPCL), in spite of some reckonable gains, is profiled thus: An undeveloped and shrinking permanent site 25 years after its establishment, lack of a comprehensive press for its operations leading to total dependency on its competitor for printing jobs. It now has less than 120 staff, from a peak of nearly thrice this number. It is also typified by a welter of wrong policies, including putting a ceiling on its expenditure, massive loss of operational geographic space and an increasingly frustrated
workforce“ Uwagwu said.

What business does government have in running a newspaper?other than to feed the media with distorted truths.