by The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the Federal Government is under reported because its information handlers are not using the right and current communication channels.
The minister said this on Thursday in Abuja at a meeting with Resident Information Officers in the ministry on the forthcoming launch of an information dissemination App.
He said, “Government is doing so much, yet people keep saying they do not know because we are not communicating through the right channel.”
The minister said that gone were the days when the newspapers and the television stations were the major means of information dissemination.
He said that there was the need for the RIOs deployed to all government ministries and parastatal agencies to adopt the use of the social media in disseminating government activities real time.
“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 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.
He said government will organise workshop starting with 25 to 30 key ministries and parastatal agencies as pilot scheme before others will be keyed in.
Earlier, 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.
Speaking in the same vein, the project consultant, Mr Falope Olawale, said the app would help to correct many falsehood and unbalanced stories about the country in local and foreign media.
