The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has tasked media practitioners in Nigeria to be champions of change, ombudsmen, gate keepers and agenda setters.
The minister spoke on Thursday in Port-Harcourt at the opening of 12th All Nigeria Editor’s Conference 2016 of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports with the theme of the conference is “Economic Diversification: Agriculture as option for a Prosperous Nigeria”
“The media owes it as a duty to keep Nigerians well informed about the situation in the country and it must do so in context.
“We are not saying we should continue to lament about missed opportunities, the massive corruption or profligacy of the past.
“It is important for Nigerians to know where and when the rain started beating them.
“They must know that no provision was made for any umbrella to shield them from the elements, and that indeed genuine efforts are now being made to turn things around.”
Mohammed commended the Guild for the well thought-out theme of the conference, noting that agriculture is one of the sectors the government has identified in its economic diversification.
He said there were unprecedented and massive investments in infrastructure by the Federal Government, particularly on roads, railways and power as road contractors had been mobilised to sites.
He said the Federal Government was committed to prudent management of the little resources that were accruing to the country.
Mohammed said that the nation’s economy was hard hit by the fall in the price of crude oil because the country failed to save for the rainy day and did not invest in
infrastructure.
He said that the claim by an international terror group that it had appointed a new leader for Boko Haram was a ruse.
The minister said that insurgents in Nigeria were on the run and nothing would bring them back to the country. (NAN).