Yerima takes over as Director overseeing ES office, NICO

FORMER Director of Training at the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Mrs. Bridgette Rupmicit Yerima, has taken over the baton of leadership as Director, overseeing the office of the Executive Secretary/CEO, following the retirement of Mr. Louis Eriomala from service on Friday, April 17, 2020.

An e-mail, with the caption ‘Handover to the Most Senior Director in NICO’, dated April, 20, 2020 and signed by Akudo-Nwoso Nwosu (Deputy Director, OPS) on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Deaconess Grace Isu Gekpe, directed Eriomala, the immediate past Director Overseeing the Office of the Executive Secretary to handover the affairs of the Institute.

The mail reads in part “I am directed to request you to handover the affairs of the Agency as well as forward all relevant circulars urgently to the aforementioned director on receipt of this mail”.

Mrs. Yerima, who has since received handover notes from her predecessor, joined the Federal Civil Service in 1987 with the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, where she was posted to the Department of Culture, as cultural officer. She was among the first set of officers to be deployed to the National Troupe of Nigeria when it was created where she served in different capacities including officer overseeing the welfare of artistes; head of administration; public relations officer and marketing officer until her transfer to the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) in 1997, as assistant chief programmes officer.

When NICO’s administrative head office was moved to Abuja and with the commencement of active training, Mrs. Yerima became the first coordinator of Training and Orientation for the Institute as well as Liaison Officer in charge of Lagos in 2004. She was the one who coordinated the first batch of training programmes for cultural officers leading to the award of Post Graduate Diploma in Cultural Administration under the guidance and leadership of Elder J. B. Yusuff, then Executive Secretary of the Institute.

With the creation of a full-fledged department for training for the Institute in 2010, Mrs. Yerima was posted to head the Lagos Liaison Office. Under her leadership as the Liaison Officer, major programmes of the Institute were conceptualized and later institutionalized, which are; Annual Round Table Conference for Cultural Orientation (ARTCCO); Nigerian Indigenous Language Programme (NILP); Weekend Indigenous Language Programme; Language in the Barracks and the Annual Children’s Cultural Extravaganza with components like debate in indigenous Languages, cooking competition, hairdo completion, dancing competition for secondary schools.

Born on July 26, 1963, Yerima, who hails from Lantang North Council of Plateau State, attended St. Augustine’s Primary School, Pallam, and had her secondary school education at the Government Girl’s Secondary School, Shendam, from 1970 to 1975, she proceeded to the University of Jos, where she had her first degree in theatre arts in 1985. She, thereafter, obtained two masters’ degrees in public administration and educational administration and Planning from the University of Lagos as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Education from the same university.

Until her recent appointment as the Director, Overseeing the office of the Executive Secretary, she was the Institute’s Director of Training overseeing the Lagos Training School and Abuja Study Centre.