Mary Noel-Berje, was a newscaster with the Nigeria Television Authority, (NTA), Minna, Niger State, but the newly appointed Chief Press Secretary to the State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello is already missing her Beat in the Newsroom.


She joined the Authority 21 yrs ago,(1998) and has worked in the Programmes department before crossing over to the Newsroom and became a Principal Staff. She served as the Niger State Government House Correspondent under the administration of Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu for eight years before she was recently appointed by the present administration of Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello as the Chief Press Secretary, thereby becoming the first Female Chief Press Secretary in Niger State Until her appointment, she is also the incumbent Chairperson of NAWOJ in the State.

How she received the news….

It was the Chief of Staff that invited me to his office to inform me about the appointment. It was like seeking my consent and the first thing that came out of my mind was some questions-Do you people find me capable enough, do you think I can meet up your expectations, do you think I can do it and do you think I am good enough?

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These questions came out from me not because I doubted my ability but it was an appointment never envisaged at all.

There are processes that come with this but I just never envisaged that this could come to me and probably, this was what forced the questions out from me.

Honestly, it has been a task but I really thank God from where I am coming from and that is NTA family because as women, we have also worked like men and no doubt, my strength so far is from my experience in NTA so it had been a good journey so far.

Any role of godfatherism in your appointment?

No, no-no. Heaven knows. It is something I did not lobby for or ever knew how it came about.

However, one will always want to get better in life and you want to be up there or at the peak of your profession and you might not know how this thought would come to fruition. Remember that the destiny of anybody is in the hands of God but when you work into your destiny, it will just come right into your palm, and probably, that is what has happened in my case. God did it.