ADDRESS BY THE PERMANET SECRETARY FEDERAL MINISTRY OF INFORMATION, AT THE 44TH MEETING OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON INFORMATION HELD AT WOMEN AND CHILDREN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE FOUNDATIION, OSOGBO, OSUN STATE FROM 25TH – 27TH SEPTEMBER, 2013

1. ADDRESS BBY THE PERMANET SECRETARY FEDERAL MINISTRY OF
INFORMATION, AT THE 44TH
MEETING OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL
ON INFORMATION HELD AT WOMEN AND CHILDREN DEVELOPMENT
INITIATIVE FOUNDATIION, OSOGBO, OSUN STATE FROM 25TH
– 27TH
SEPTEMBER, 2013
The Honourable Commissioner of Information & Strategy,
Permanent Secretaries,
Directors-General & Heads of Parastatals,
Federal & State Directors of Information,
Distinguished Delegates
Gentlemen of the Press,
Distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen
It is an honour and privilege to be with you all at the 44th
National Council on
Information holding in this historic town of Osogbo, the capital of Osun State
known for its internationally acclaimed rich cultural heritage and choice
tourist location.
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the indefatigable Governor, Ogbeni
Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, his able lieutenants and the good people of Osun
State a.k.a. the State of Osun for their wonderful warm reception and
traditional hospitality lavished on us since we arrived here.
Following this conducive and hospitable environment I am optimistic that we
have all been well energized to take far reaching decisions on the vital
aspects of Information Management that will impact positively on the
citizenry and facilitate national development.

2. As you are all aware we have the traditional responsibility to keep Nigerians
adequately informed. Effective communication of government’s decisions,
policies and programmes in a timely and comprehensive manner helps to
bridge the gap between the government and the people. A dynamic
information management has thus become critical to the success or otherwise
of any government be it among the developed or the developing nations.
We have the obligation to evolve at all times transparent and effective ways
of helping people understand, appreciate and support government plans,
programmes and activities through the provision of adequate information.
Unfortunately we are yet to fully avail ourselves of the great possibilities
offered by the new multi-media platforms that can help us do our job better
and help get our messages across to millions of people simultaneously in real
time.
Our traditional publicity outlets often referred to as industrial media are
striving to contain the contemporary publicity challenges but we need to take
a step further because our society is becoming more and more complex and
the global community is currently being driven by digital technologies. It is
this state of affairs that has informed the adoption of the theme for this 44th
Meeting of the National Council on Information – “Social Media and Public
Information Management”.
We as Information Managers need to include in our publicity domain the
present day social media which uses mobile and web-based technologies to
create highly inter-active platforms.

3. Through Social Media such as blogs, microblogs, social networks etc, people or
groups can create, organize, edit, comment on combine and share information
thereby helping agencies or governments better achieve their mission goals.
And in the case of our current democratic dispensation of President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan to achieve the Transformation Agenda, this is key.
It is my belief that this meeting will give adequate consideration to issues
bordering on social media as a publicity strategy as well as other vital issues
to enable us formulate adequate publicity methods that will portray
government programmes and activities favourable to the people.
I wish us all fruitful deliberations and thank you for your kind attention.