By Segun Imohiosen
“We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!” Maya Angelou.
The culture of indifference has held sway for too long which in other words has affected the polity to the point that the years of carelessness, waste and impunity is the reason for all the challenges and hardship experienced in our socio-political and economy lives. What we refused to care about today has the propensity to adversely affect us tomorrow. When I saw the ‘Tragedy of Indifference’, a piece by Emmanuel Ojeifo, in as much as his concern was more about the insouciant and lackadaisical attitude of a number of the citizenry to the plight and suffering of fellow Nigerians, particularly on the Chibok girls affairs, I deduced that this culture of indifference is the reason why we are where we are today as a nation.
As it is my custom to say that: “A dream you don’t have is a reality you deny yourself”.
Coasting home to the subject of discourse, the critical nature of information management in every business cannot be overemphasized, especially when it has to do with the business of government. Information in government, piquantly, is more crucial than the regular. The one who is saddled with the responsibility of managing government information is that man who has undergone various stages of exposure in the affairs of government through trainings, seminars, workshops and specie-specific trainings to handle the business of government.
In an era of change where good governance is the key factor of running government business, public accountability and responsible citizenry is perspicuously germane to making government information available to the public, a lot is involved in ensuring that information is professionally expressed because it has a fundamental role in shaping opinion, perception and ultimately the end use of the information made available in the public domain through the spokesperson.
This is the reason why the man in charge of press/public affairs as either a spokesperson at a higher level of government or within the MDAs as the Resident Information Officers (RIOs) as referred from the Federal Ministry of Information subsumes a group of trained information officers who are versed in the management of government information, who in turn have the capacity to reach out to the different publics.
This is the more reason why managing government information is not an all comers affairs.
In as much as this piece wishes to shed light on the role of the Resident Information Officers (RIOs), it must be taking for granted that he is the man on ground at the MDAs that understands the day to day management of information within that system. Nevertheless, this is not to say that the media consultant or a regular media practitioner out there cannot collaborate with the RIOs but not to take their jobs.
It is very consequential at this point that the idea of a public office holder particularly the Ministers bringing media consultants to manage government information for them must be obtrusively jettisoned since the government information officer here referred to as the RIO has been tutored on the affairs of government through the numerous exposure to the everyday government affairs and up to date information within the system unlike that man coming from outside.
In retrospect, while PMB was Military Head of State with his sidekick, Gen. Tunde Idiagbon, War Against Indiscipline (WAI) was a huge success through the Federal Ministry of Information. And as a democratically elected president, he sometime in April this year in an interview mentioned the fact that Federal Ministry of Information was the arrow head that championed the then War Against Indiscipline (WAI) that brought Nigerians back to the path of order and discipline.
The recent presidential directive to the ministers designate is key to the overall success of the Buhari administration. Asking them to adopt effective communication strategies for smooth operations in governance would only be meaningful if they can adequately employ the services of the people from within the system.
Let me simply point out at this juncture that just like Maya Angelou said: “Nothing will work unless you do”. Let the ministers look inward in the era of change and give the civil servants who are trained information officers a chance to prove their mettle and with the support of whoever the ministers may need to help his media affairs. But let in totality the information of government be handled by those who are trained to do so. We may encounter many defeats, but it is a choice not to be defeated.
Once again, government media is not everybody’s media. There are things you cannot dabble into. Without experience in that system, one could make a mess of the reportage. Government information is not shrouded in any mystery, not esoteric but the peculiarity is keen and only those within can handle it at best.
Reporting the activities of government on behalf of a Chief Executive in the MDAs is more sensitive than the ordinary and the risk in the face of any faux pas could rubbish the office, the public office holder and government.
The question however, is whether government is stupid to have set up different human capacity development/training institutions to meet the different growing and divergent concerns of the MDAs and government? Such institutions are in the areas of management, administrations, and media, such as Nigerian Institute of Public Information (NIPI) in Kaduna, Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) in Lagos and Administration and Staff College Nigeria (ASCON) Badagry and a host of others. However, as far as this discourse is concerned, National Institute of Public Information (NIPI) is the front burner matter.
Imohiosen wrote from Abuja.
