By Rotimi Ijikanmi
The Federal Government says it will suffuse the airwaves and the social media with unmistakable video evidence of the various achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari to show Nigerians what his administration has achieved in its six years of office.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said this in Abuja on Tuesday at a media briefing to present the mid-term report of the second tenure of Buhari’s administration.
The event was also used to unveil “an all-encompassing and unprecedented documentary’’ showcasing achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration ‘in order to prove naysayers wrong.’
Mohammed said, “In spite of our best efforts, the naysayers have continued to say they have not seen what this administration has achieved.
“They have continued to deny the obvious by pretending that these achievements are not real.
“Even when they have travelled on the new standard gauge rail from Abuja to Kaduna, Lagos to Ibadan, and Itakpe-Ajaokuta-Warri, they still deny that any progress has been made in modernising the country’s rail infrastructure.
“They travel through the ultra-modern airport terminals in Abuja and Enugu, yet they deny any progress has been made in modernising our airports.
“This year, 2021, which marks the half-way point of the second and final term of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, we have decided to once again change our style for more effectiveness.
“Our new strategy is to suffuse the airwaves and the social media with unmistakable video evidence of the various achievements to such an extent that even the blind can ‘see’ and the deaf can ‘hear’,’’ he said.
The minister recalled that since 2016, they had heralded every annual anniversary of the administration with massive publicity of the achievements of the government.
He said they had leveraged on Town Hall Meetings, media tours of the Federal Government projects and testimony series to showcase the administration’s achievements.
Mohammed said the efforts had not yielded the desired results because of the naysayers who had always denied the obvious.
According to the minister, the documentary, which is a new strategy, will be aired via television sets and mobile phones applications such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
“Because of the sheer enormity of the achievements, the documentary will be aired in three parts, and will run for months.
“When we started, we envisaged a two-part documentary, but in order to accommodate a large chunk of the achievements, we decided to extend it to three parts.
“The documentary, which will be updated from time to time until the end of the administration’s tenure, covers roads, rail, housing, power, aviation, agriculture, ports, bridges, health, fight against Covid-19, water resources and the economy generally,’’ he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that journalists at the briefing were shown a short clip preview of the documentary.