FG Prepares Information Officers To Tackle Fake News

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the
Ministry has strengthened the capacity of its Information Officers to
tackle the menace of fake news with fact-based counter-narrative.

The Minister stated this in Abuja on Wednesday 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.”

He said 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.

”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,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

He said 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,” the Minister said.

He underscored the critical role of Information Officers in
strengthening government communication to achieve national
strategic objectives, particularly in managing the image, reputation
and promoting the cultures of the people of Nigeria through a dynamic
public information system.

He said because of the dynamics of public communication, ”the
ministry is leveraging on various Social Media platforms like
Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, Twitter and Instagram to reach our
audiences, especially the youths. These Social Media platforms also
provide unique opportunity for the Ministry to aggregate and gauge
public opinions and perceptions of government.”

The National Security Adviser, who was represented by the Permanent
Secretary, Special Services, Ambassador Aminu Nabegu, challenged
participants to come up with a strategic communication plan to counter
the propaganda and negative narratives by terror and anti-state
groups.

He said the present administration has eliminated inter-agency rivalry
in order to achieve seamless and coordinated approach to effective
communication.

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),