Minister To Govt. Information Managers: Don’t Succumb To Intimidation, Distraction By Naysayers

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has
charged government information managers to remain focused in carrying
out their duties, despite efforts by naysayers to distract and
intimidate them.

The Minister gave the charge in his keynote address at the 2017 Annual
National Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian
Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) in Ilorin on Thursday.

He said the job of the government information managers has become so
daunting because of the undefined nature of the opponents and the
advent of the Social Media, which puts power in the hands of anyone
with a phone and data, without commensurate responsibility and
control.

”Today’s perception manager, especially at the government level, can
be likened to one who has signed a contract, the terms of which he
or she is not aware of…The opponents are not clearly defined. They
could be friends today and opponents tomorrow. They are not necessarily
interested in the vision of the government nor the welfare of the people. They
insist on being heard and seen, and the privacy, reputation or integrity of
public officials are of no consequence to them.

”For this section of the new media, government and its leadership must be
annihilated. It is not about logic, reason, intellectual discourse or
professionalism. It is about a viciousness and bitterness that are hard
to fathom,” the Minister said, adding: ”The masses are daily served
incredible menu and unbelievable tales which they swallow hook, line
and sinker.”

Saying the naysayers deliberately engage in disinformation, he cited
the example of a widely-circulated fake news that said he (the
Minister) has 1.2 billion dollars in his bank account.

”Let’s examine this a for a moment. 1.2 billion dollars is about 400
billion Naira. The entire yearly budget of the Ministry of Information
and Culture, where I preside, is under 15 billion Naira, and this
includes salaries, overhead and capital projects. Assuming, without
conceding, that the Minister somehow manages to transfer the entire
budget into his personal account, it will take 25 years for him to
amass 400 billion Naira. Yet, this disinformation was lapped up by the
public. Similar imaginary huge sums of money have been credited to
other Ministers,” he said.

While urging the government spokespersons not to be distracted, Alhaji
Mohammed charged: ”You must be proactive rather than defensive. You
must refuse to allow them to set your agenda for you. You must set
your own agenda and daily review such, with a view to improving on
them. You must stay true to your calling to inform and educate, and to
telegraph the achievements of your principal and the intentions of
government.”

In order to succeed, he said the information managers must equip
themselves with qualities such as integrity, courage, abnormal
capacity for hard work, ingenuity, resourcefulness, ability to think
out of the box, encyclopedic knowledge of all things under the stars,
incorruptibility and, above all, passion for the job.

In his remarks, the NIPR President, Dr. Rotimi Oladele, said this
year’s annual conference is to generate ideas on how to use the
profession to dispense communication that will promote values for
accelerated development and sustainability.

The high point of the occasion was the inauguration, by the Minister,
of the Governing Council under the chairmanship of Dr. Rotimi Oladele.