Minister to launch info dissemination App, decries under-reportage by social media
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has decried the observed poor reportage of Federal Government activities by social media and blamed his ministry’s information handlers for not using the right and current communication channels in their jobs.
The minister said the new App to be launched before the end of the month would bridge the gap by using the social media to “tell the world what the government is doing’’.
He urged the RIOs to rise up to the challenge, stressing that they would be the one that would feed the App with stories.
These were revealed by the Minister Thursday in Abuja at a meeting with Resident Information Officers in the ministry on the forthcoming launch of an information dissemination App.
Mohammed said “Government is doing so much, yet people keep saying they do not know because we are not communicating through the right channel.”
According to the minister, gone were the days when the newspapers and the television stations were the major means of information dissemination, saying for information to reach million of Nigerians as soon as possible, the ministry need to join the bandwagon of social media to inform Nigerians in addition to the conventional media.
He said that there was the need for the RIOs deployed to all government ministries, departments and agencies to adopt the use of the social media in disseminating government activities real time.
In his views, “Newspapers are no longer as powerful as they used to be. Before newspaper editorial can bring down a government.
“Gone are those day when the ‘Sunday Times’ sold half a million copies in one day.
“But today the new media is the social media and unless you are there and show a very strong presence, you are not communicating to the world.
“We need technology to inform the world on what we are doing and with the new applications every person in the world will get to know what is happening in the country real time.”
The minister added that government will organise workshop starting with 25 to 30 key ministries and parastatal agencies as pilot scheme before others will be keyed in.
Explaining more on the new App to be launched, Mrs Veronica Adeyemo, the Director Information Technology in the ministry, said the information apps would go on hand held devices and it would be functional every minute of the day all year round.
