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.
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.