In a bid to tell the world what the current administration is doing, the Federal Government has announced plans to launch a Mobile App for the President Muhammadu Buhari led government before the end of the month.
Speaking on Thursday at a meeting with the Resident Information Officers (RIOs) in his Ministry, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, said “gone were the days when newspapers were so powerful that their editorials could bring down a government.”
While acknowledging the role of social media in the dissemination of information, he, however, said that the federal government was under-reported because its information handlers were not using the right and current communication channels.
His words: “Government is doing so much, yet people keep saying they do not know because we are not communicating through the right channel.”
“Gone were the days when the newspapers and the television stations were the major means of information dissemination. Newspapers are no longer as powerful as they used to be. Before newspaper editorial can bring down a government. Gone are those day when the Sunday Times sold half a million copies in one day.
“But today the new media is the social media and unless you are there and show a very strong presence, you are not communicating to the world.
“We need technology to inform the world on what we are doing and with the new applications every person in the world will get to know what is happening in the country real time.”
The minister added that an information dissemination App would be launched before the end of the month, and that it would bridge the gap by using the social media to “tell the world what the government is doing”.