The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the deliberate spread of false information via the Social Media has negatively impacted on the federal government’s efforts to keep Nigerians informed of its activities.
“Everyday, this group of people deliberately distort our messages while also suffusing the atmosphere with their own version of information,” Lai Mohammed said in a speech at a Colloquium organized by the National Coalition of Apostolic Leaders in Lagos yesterday.
He stated that in order to ensure that Nigerians got undiluted and correct information, the government had resorted to taking its messages directly to the people using the Town Hall Meeting format.
“We are aware that it is not just enough to do something, you must be seen to be doing it. In other words, the activities of government are as important as communicating them. That is why this Administration places much premium on communicating with the people.
“Mixing the traditional means of communication with the modern ones, we are reaching out to the people through radio, television, newspapers and the all-powerful Social Media to keep them abreast of developments in these three broad areas”, he stated.m
He said the government was also aware that feedback was one of the essential elements of good communication, adding: ”It is not enough for a government to talk to the people, the government must also hear from them.”
Mohammed thanked the Nigeria Coalition of Apostolic Leaders for organizing the State of the Nation Colloquium, but urged them to sustain it.
