*  Ogwezzy-Ndisika

by Tony Icheku

 Even as governments in Nigeria gets more befuddled how to utilise the ever burgeoning social media,  university lecturer, Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika advises that the Federal Government should re-equip its media through the use modern Information Communication Technology (ICT), to curb false and fabricated reports in the social and traditional media.

 Ogwezzy-Ndisika, former Head of Department of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos urged  government  to proactively engage the citizenry through the social media in a strategic way. "If you do not engage your citizens, others would, and often with devastating effects" she maintained; And  advocated for the use of the new media to enhance citizens’ involvement in programme planning and implementation.

 Ogwezzy-Ndisika speaking Thursday  at a retreat to fashion out new strategies in the management and dissemination of information on Federal Government’s programmes and activities to Nigerians articulated her views in  a paper entitled "Perspectives on Effectively Communicating Government Programmes at the Grassroots: Dimensions in the Use of Social and Traditional Media’’, advised the government to re-tool its media.

 She advised that the Federal Government should re-equip its media through the use modern Information Communication Technology (ICT), to curb false and fabricated reports in the social and traditional media.

 According to her, new media offer a wide range of opportunities for citizens’ involvement in a new world of participatory approach to programming.

 ``As our democracy continues to burgeon and bloom, citizens are becoming sophisticated, robust and demanding. They have naturally taken to the social media to vent their anger.

 ``In Nigeria, government has been at the receiving end of several distorted messages. The Internet has become the breeding ground for propaganda.

 ``It is because of this loose nature of the new media that it is imperative that government that cares about ensuring that its citizens are properly informed, should not sit and be on the defensive.’’

 According to her, government needs to proactively engage the citizenry through this platform in a strategic way.

 If you do not engage your citizens, others would, and often with devastating effects.

 In his contribution, Mr Ima Niboro, the Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), noted that d many people believed in any report on social media as the truth.

 Niboro, therefore, stressed the need for government media agencies to manage peoples’ perception.

 In his contribution,  Mr Sampson Worlu, the Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), said it was imperative for government media to device a feedback mechanism whenever they disseminated government programmes and policies to the people.

 Worlu said that if government media reported back to peoples’ reactions, it would help in enhancing the credibility of the agencies.

 Earlier, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Information, said the retreat was organized to revive, strengthen, fully invigorate and reposition the information management machinery, to meet the current challenges.