Photo caption: Dr. Obinna Ezeobi
The Mass Communication Department, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Enugu State, has invited Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, Manager Media and Publicity at the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) as the 2025 guest speaker of her 14th Jackson Annual Lecture.
Ezeobi, an alumnus of the institution is billed to speak on “Local Content, National Development and Strategic Communications Imperative”, at the event scheduled for February 20, 2025, at Princess Alexandra Auditorium, UNN.
In a letter conveying the invitation, the Head, Mass Communication Department, UNN, Prof Michael Ukonu, indicated that the Jackson Annual Lecture is a yearly academic festivity, which brings together media scholars, practitioners, policy makers, students and the general public to keep abreast with the ever-evolving field of communication studies.
He highlighted the guest lecturer’s expertise on the theme of the subject matter, and conveyed expectations that the lecture would feature effective strategies on the promotion of sustainable development, as well as provide insight and perspectives on effective local content implementation.
The guest lecturer’s career has spanned over two decades in the oil and gas industry, media and the advertising sector, and he holds a doctorate degree in Energy Communications, from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The Jackson Annual Lecture is named after John Payne Jackson, an American-Liberian journalist, who founded and edited, Lagos Weekly Record in 1891, one of the earliest influential newspapers in pre-independent Nigeria.
Established in 1961, UNN’s Department of Mass Communication was originally known as Jackson College of Journalism and was the first institution to offer courses in journalism in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ezeobi’s dissertation entitled “Nigerian Oil and Gas Content Communication Campaigns and Selected Oil Companies’ Awareness and Compliance,” has remained a reference material for the oil and gas industry operators and academics.
His study explored how the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act was introduced and communicated as a transformational policy of the Federal Government and its challenges and limitations as a developmental strategy. The empirical research probed the persistence of Nigerian Content non-compliant practices by international and indigenous oil and gas companies despite the extensive communication campaigns carried out on the Nigerian Content Act.
Dr. Ezeobi’s PhD research would improve policy formulation in the wider Nigerian economy and guide Government agencies to come up with impactful communication campaigns that would foster compliance and improve engagement with key stakeholders in various sectors of the economy.
The outcomes of his study would enhance NCDMB’s communication programmes and implementation of the NOGICD Act as well as contribute to the body of knowledge on the influence of media and communications on the behaviour of individuals and companies, particularly their attitude towards regulations when business interests are involved.
Ezeobi is one of the foundation members of staff of NCDMB having been working at the Board since 2010, after stints in the media and the advertising industry. His goal is to contribute significantly to the practice and study of Energy Communications, foster improved understanding and support of the sector by members of the public.
