Let’s Contain Insurgency And Banditry Together, Lai Mohammed Urges Media Practitioners

  • Minister pleads with the media to support FG in ending terrorism.
  • Ambode urges media to support Babajide Sanwo-Olu

The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Lai Mohammed has urged the media to support the Federal Government in its effort to contain insurgency and banditry in Nigeria.

Represented by the Director of Information in the ministry, Sunday Baba, the minister made the call at the 2019 Biennial Convention of the Nigerian Guild of Editors at Ikeja, Lagos, on Saturday.

While also urging the media to support the military and the present administration’s effort to bequeath a virile and egalitarian society through concerted and sustained attacks on the ills of society, the minister pointed that media practitioners have a responsibility to steer the government toward purposeful programmes and policies that would engender national, growth and cohesiveness.

“In this light, government expects the media to always advance the national cause by upholding the sanctity of peace, nationalism and the benefits of the pluralism of our society,” he said.

In his remark, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos state said the criticisms and suggestions of the media toward a livable megacity had contributed to policy formulation and execution in the state.

The governor, who was represented by the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan appealed to the media to support his successor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in actualising the vision of a greater Lagos.

While noting that what has been witnessed in the state in the past four years and particularly the inauguration of transformational projects in recent times bears testimony to the fact that criticisms and suggestions from the media encouraged his administration to strive to do more to satisfy the needs of our people.

In a keynote address, the Head of Department (HoD) of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Prof. Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, called on media practitioners to evolve strategies to tackle media capitalists.

Ogwezzy-Ndisika who noted that new media capitalists were dominating the cyberspace, added that to remain relevant and afloat, media practitioners must do more.

She listed the problems in the media industry to include poor remuneration of journalists, shallow contents and shelving of responsibilities.

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Speaking on some media in some developed society, Ogwezzy-Ndisika said they were doing well because they were moving with current trends and realities.

She, therefore, stated that the new media, including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google, Nairaline and other platforms were taking over the role of the old media as they competed for the attention of readers and that the new media were snatching the advertising space.

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