15th May, 2017
The Federal Government is set to establish a website and reactivate its YouTube account, to provide access to the public for authentic information on its activities, an official has said.
Mr Tolu Ogunlesi, Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on digital and New media disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
Ogunlesi explained that the YouTube account would be reactivated very soon while the website would be ready by the end of June.
“We have a YouTube account; it has not been active but one of the things we are working on over the next few weeks is to reactivate the page and upload our videos.
“Meanwhile, our videos go to twitter and face book but after reactivation, we are going to make sure all those videos go on to our YouTube.
“On the website, it will be a one stop shop, where people can have free access to authentic information about Federal Government’s pronouncements, activities, policies and programmes.
“Our target is the end of second quarter which is end of June; by the end of June we will have this website up for people to find all the government information they need.
“However, we have since set up official Federal Government social media platforms on twitter, Facebook and nairaland.
“We put up information regularly and speedily on those platforms; that is our job and we will continue to do more,” he said.
The Presidential aide emphasised that other government ministries and agencies were rising up to the task of being active on social media and giving information the citizens needed.
“We have Ministry of Health, the Centre for Disease Control, the EFCC, NDDC and others doing a lot of fantastic jobs and giving out authentic information on their social media platforms.”
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On circulation of fake news, Ogunseli raised concerns on the activities of some bloggers and unpatriotic people circulating such news about government and some individuals.
According to him, fake news has negative effects on both government and some individuals in the society whose integrity is being destroyed by such news.
The presidential aide, however, said that it was not possible to block the circulation of fake news on the internet.
”That is the reason the government is providing its social media platforms for people to get authentic information as an alternative to sites that spread fake and unpatriotic news,” he added.
Ogunlesi called on civil society organisations, journalists, media houses and citizens to discourage the circulation of fake news.