By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
The Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) and other Information Managers of the Federal government, have accused the Nigerian media platforms of yielding their spaces for the promotion of fake news against the All Progressives Congress (APC) government both at federal and state levels.
A communique issued yesterday by the Director General of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh Lukman, said these were part of the outcome of an inaugural meeting of Managers of Information of APC Governments at Federal and State Levels, which was facilitated by PGF and hosted by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State at Alausa, Ikeja.
To this end, they recommended the need for development of consultative platforms, as well as institutionalisation of periodic meetings of Managers of information at the Federal and State levels to fight spread of fake news against the governments.
The communique said the objective of the meeting was to create synergy in communicating initiatives of APC governments at both federal and State levels and to set up necessary strategies and frameworks for coordinated communication initiatives.
It also said the APC Governors and the federal government information managers, at the meeting reviewed challenges of communicating the initiatives of the APC governments at both the Federal and State levels and considered proposals for effective communication and better public engagement.
Welcoming participants at the meeting, the chairman of APC Governors Forum, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, who is also the Governor of Kebbi, recounted many achievements of the APC governments ranging from milestone infrastructural development to unprecedented social investment programme in Nigeria.
Also, the chairman of the APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Mai Mala Buni, who is also the Governor of Yobe, represented by Barr. Ismail Ahmed, a member of APC National Caretaker Committee, highlighted the party’s strategic interest and vision, which underlined the party’s commitment to development in Nigeria.
The Minister for Information, Lai Muhammed, delivering a Keynote address titled ‘Contemporary Challenges of Information and Communication Management – Regulatory Issues and Requirements’, identified the key challenges and dynamics of achieving effective media communications and public engagement in Nigeria.
Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who hosted the meeting, affirmed commitment to open and honest dialogue, with regular feedbacks between elected officials and their constituents, to promote democracy and boost trust between elected government officials and the voters.
The meeting, after deliberations, observed that effective media and citizens engagement with regular feedbacks is critical to communicating the performance of governments of APC at all levels in terms of presenting the factual and truthful narrative to the people.
“It is vital to create sustainable synergy amongst all the managers of information to holistically address the problems of falsehood, misinformation and media abuse in every dimension, by considering media plan and strategy as a strategic component of every government programme and projects.
“All stakeholders should consider the impacts of social media on perception management, particularly as it is currently being used for propagation of falsehood and hatred among Nigerians.
“Media funding is a major challenge because it is very capital intensive, so APC governments need to look for a balance between the huge funds required for it and the funding for other sectors”, the communique issued at the end of the meeting said.
On how to address the challenges of bad media against the APC government, the information managers said increased engagement with the citizenry is essential to ensure emotional connection between government officials and the people that will change the existing negative perception and distrust within the shortest time.
According to them, synergy formed between and within the managers of information of APC governments at all levels with shared content and objectives, as well as coordinated engagement with all critical stakeholders can improve the value, quality, output, outcome, and sustainability of media interventions of governments.
They said there is the need to adequately plan and develop capacities at all levels for media practitioners and managers of APC governments for content development, right strategy and effective engagement of the different segments of the Nigerian population.
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