Date Published: 03/10/10

Government Information: Public Relations or Propaganda by Niran Abitogun.

Information is a powerful   tool which dictates the direction of human relationship with the environment. It is a fact and or details of a particular event. Every segment of the society depends on information to develop. Suffice to say therefore, that no society can effectively operate without information. In all spheres of human interaction there must be a platform for linkage, be it social, religion, historical, government activities even within us the significance of information cannot be undervalued. This situation must have informed the thinking of the scholars in this ever-important field when they postulated that all aspects of information elicit response.

In the most recent time the events as they unfold in the presidency Aso Rock, Abuja, has attracted interest around the globe. Here, the country is faced with a situation where the president Umar Y’Adua took ill and was flown abroad for treatment. In the course of the long absence, no official reports from the government or other agencies as the case may be. Yet the country has a professor of pharmacology Mrs Dora Akunyili as Information and Communication minister. By all standard she should be able to give information on the health of the president to Nigerians who are eager to know the where about of their president. The crisis turned political which put the constitution of the country of over 150m people into serious question. The institution charged with the role of interpreting the constitution failed to perform its required expectations. Judgements from the courts were not obeyed an indication of weak institution.

At the seat of power, the federal   executive council   (fec), were conducting the affairs of the state with levity riddled with regional political coloration. Because the president come from one section of the country was played out of proportion at the detriment of the nation’s binding book-the constitution. When the president was finally brought back into the country on a midnight mission from Saudi nobody including the Acting president knew. The Information minister the official spokesperson for the government had nothing to offer in term of information.

At this height of political blunders, silence cannot be golden, the nation wanted to have first hand information about the president and the political development in the country.  Because the woman can no longer bottle the lies and allowed the country to drift into anarchy and mistrust she busted the blocked pipe of information and it flowed out. Her instinct took over and worked on her initiatives she rose up to the task of her office and the responsibilities bestowed on her office as sworn to. She told Nigerians what they have been waiting for. The action ended the waiting game of rumours and deceit. However it did not go down well with the political gladiators, the cabals and mafia as she called them rolled out their crushing machines. They wanted to hold on to power in order to frustrate the economic development and cause untold hardship to the entire citizens.  They unearth their swords, even her immediate constituency-the ministers joined the in the dance of shame to attack the woman. The national assembly which had gone to bed suddenly woke up to the realisation that the information minister ought to be gagged forthwith. Though their motion to gag her was defeated by the progressive forces in the two houses it nonetheless showed how the rulers abhor truth and wanted to swim in the ocean of secrecy. Some so called northern elements in the assembly went as far as calling for her resignation. The woman laughed. Madam I join you to laugh at them, when 390 men and women cannot get it right with the FEC at the first instance, they now wanted to flex muscles with a woman who has help them to watch away their shames.

The question any information manager would want to ask is; should information management in government be seen as propaganda or public relations? If  we go by oxford advanced learner dictionary, it defines propaganda as an idea or statement that may be false or exaggerated and that are used in order to gain support for political leaders, while it says public relations is the business of giving the public information about a particular organisation or person in order to create a good impression;.......From the stated definitions Dora Akunyili has by every standard created good impression for the government by following the path of honour. Propaganda in all ramifications negates the basis principle of mobilising the people through the instrument of information. It forms a subjective view of maintaining secrecy and deceiving the nation, making the government unaccountable to the people. If the primary motive of any information is to serve the primordial interest of the political rulers doom and unrest plus uncertainty shall surely become the order of the day. What the nation witnessed in the last 100 days or more after the absence of the president before the information minister opened up the lids can only be described as irrational and barbaric way of managing information.

In the civilised societies around the world issues surrounding the office and person of president are treated openly because of the attention and important of the position to the nation’s development most especially in a nascent democracy like ours. For instance, in the last few weeks back, the former America president was admitted into a New York hospital for heart surgery. Not only was the news made known to Americans within an hour, there was a live telecast of update. Also the doctor in the hospital came out to address the press on the progress made and when the former leader would be expected in the public. In the United Kingdom every citizen is aware that the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown’s left eye is permanently defective. It is not hidden from the people or from the opposition camp. In Africa, the Egyptian president Hossien Mubarak is to undergo gall bladder surgery he promptly handed over power to the Prime Minister. These are civilised ways of running a country constitutionally not one based on ear say and rumours. That moves of Mrs Akunyili to well meaning Nigerians are pari-material with the constitutional requirement of her office and apart from this the profession information management demands her to act without fear or favour. In journalism, fact is sacred, comments are free. The information minister has therefore abided by every tenet which governs information dissemination by allowing Nigerians to know the true position of events in the presidency. By her singular action the tension which envelops the nation was doused. The international communities have started worrying about the political developments in Nigeria, however the information dimension brought out a manageable level of peace which can be built upon for further development.  Any political crisis in Nigeria will surely affect the whole of West Africa and the globe. So the apprehension of the western world can be appreciated in this instance. The nation had once witnessed a civil war it cannot afford another one because of common obedience to the constitution and or allowing the nation to know the right thing at the right time. 

The power of public relations is quite enormous; Dora has demonstrated how such power can bring about peace in a rancorous situation. Instead of blaming her or intimidating her for choosing the path of honour, she ought to be praised for saving the jobs of the political gladiators. A onetime strike by the military will send all these politicians to scamper for safety across the entire globe. The country will thus be returned to another dark age where guns became the deciding factor instead of brains.  We have passed through this type of government we are not praying for another experience of such.

If Nigerian men haven’t got the liver to speak out the truth and they get a woman who has done that on their behalf, I think the law of absolute necessity should inform their common sense to act decently instead of forming an inordinate opposition to persecute the innocent woman.

If we believe that our democracy is nascent, it behoves on the politicians to let the people know the true position of governance rather than employing the tactics of secrecy to rule the nation. 

Niran Abitogun.

Abuja, Nigeria.