He made the reassurance in Abuja during an interactive session with members of the House of Representatives Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values on Thursday
The
Minister said the Buhari Administration will not abuse the trust
reposed in it by depriving Nigerians, irrespective of their political,
religious or ethnic background, the opportunity to ventilate their views
through the public media.
“As publicly-owned media
outlets, they are accountable to the people of Nigeria and not to the
ruling party or the ruling government and I would not accept a situation
whereby publicly-owned media would be seen just as the mouthpiece of
government.
“We believe that as publicly-owned media,
the opposition and everybody in Nigeria must have equal access to us and
we must also represent their views. This is a multi-cultural,
multi-value and multi-opinionated country and, therefore, we must not
abuse the fact that we are currently in power and we are operating
publicly-owned media to deprive other Nigerians access to these media,”
he remarked.
According to him, the media is a market
place where everybody is free to express his or her own opinion, leaving
the public to make their own decision.
The Minister
told the Lawmakers that as the spokesperson for the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, his ministry would strive to ensure timely dissemination of
factual and verifiable information to keep the public abreast of
government programmes and policies as well as get their feedback on the
perception of the government.
“We believe that
information is a commodity, which should not be hoarded. Timely
information prevents rumours, eliminates misunderstanding and guess work.
I believe that there is no reason why the government should not be able
to let its people or even the Legislative Arm of Government know
exactly what it is doing on time.
“One of the first
things we tried to do is to ensure that nobody is kept in the dark about
the activities of governance. We do this by liaising with the various
ministers in the cabinet because as the Ministry of Information, we are
the spokesperson for the government and the country,” he said.
The
Minister informed the Legislators of the plans by his ministry to
launch a massive campaign, tagged ”Change Begins With Me,” aimed at
re-orientating Nigerians in line with the Change Mantra of the Buhari
Administration.
“What we believe is that this change
will not come about if we all continue to do things the same way we have
been doing them. If we do that, then you cannot expect a different
result,” Alhaji Mohammed said.
The Minister restated the
commitment of the Federal Government to achieve Digital Switch Over in
broadcasting by 2017, saying: ”With the digital Switch Over, we are
going to change completely the way broadcasting and television are
viewed. We are going to revolutionize the entire industry”.
He
however allayed fears being expressed in some quarters that with the
digital Switch Over, watching television would be out of the reach of
the common man.
Earlier, the Chairman, House Committee
on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values, Mr. Olusegun
Odebunmi, said the interaction was not to witch-hunt anybody but for the
Lawmakers to have an insight into the workings of the ministry,
departments and agencies for a harmonious working relationship and in
order to deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians.
The
Minister was accompanied by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mrs.
Ayotunde Adesugba, directors and heads of agencies and parastatals under
the ministry.
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