As part of efforts aimed at leveraging scholarship in telling the Nigerian stories, members of Voice of Nigeria (VON), and the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) have partnered to promote the nation’s rich cultural ideals.

Speaking when a delegation of VON paid an official visit to the NIIA office in Lagos, the Director General of VON, Mallam Jibrin Baba Ndace, said: “As a media institution, we want to be in the lead; we want to be the first to tell the story, the real story. We are not going to lie, but tell the world that good things are coming from Nigeria.”

He added: “In building a media landscape, you have to understand the dynamics of the environment in which you operate. I understand that despite the advent of technology, there are communities in Nigeria and Africa that still depend on terrestrial platforms for information.”

He urged the research institutions to leverage VON’s platform to amplify its ideals, vision and mission statements. NIIA Director General, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae noted that long before News Agency of Nigeria and its external news interface came on board, VON was what many Nigerians knew.

“I remember several times living in Liberia, I tuned to VON for first-hand information from Nigeria. When I was living in Ibadan, it was possible at that time to get VON, and VON has become the face of Nigeria all that time.”

He described VON as a critical platform that has strong track record in information dissemination from time immemorial. He said NIIA will use VON’s platforms in advancing and promoting its core mandate as a global renowned institution with twenty-first-century, robust research departments.