Media Managers Recruited To Counter Fake News For FG - Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the Federal Government has prepared information officers whose duties are to identify and counter fake news.

He stated this in his keynote address at a capacity building Workshop for Strategic Communication Liaison Officers, with the theme, “Mainstreaming Strategic Communication Across Government for National Security.”

A statement released by his Special Assistant, Segun Adeyemi, quoted the minister as saying that the move was to tackle the menace of fake news with fact-based counter-narrative.

Mohammed said that though the Social Media has proved to be a powerful tool of public communication, it is plagued with challenges, particularly the prevalence of fake news which makes it imperative for Information Officers to brace up and overcome the challenge.

He said, ”Faced with the prevalence of fake news, we took action by preparing Information Officers with the skills to identify and counter such fake news through engagement and counter narrative. Information Officers are assigned to monitor both online and offline news media to identify such fake news and develop timely and credible counter narratives to respond to such fake news.”

Mohammed further reveal that the Federal Government is also implementing a robust strategic communication framework, with feedback mechanism, to interface with Nigerians on the policies and programmes of government.

“For example, we engage through Town Hall Meetings across the six geo-political zones to inform Nigerians and the international community about our programmes and to listen to criticism, feedback and advice from the citizens.

”Through these meetings, we are able to shape policy and improve on delivering our promises to the people. The town hall meetings, undoubtedly, have yielded positive results with the kind of direct feedback we received from Nigerians. These interactions with Nigerians underscore the importance this administration attaches to the people in carrying them along in the task of governance,” he said.

The Workshop was organized by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP) to build the capacity of Strategic Communication Liaison Officers (SC/LO) across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Source: - Ebere Ndukwe | Ripples | July 27, 2017.