Information minister promises rubost publicity for humanitarian affairs ministry

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Malam Mohammed Idris, has promised to ensure adequate publicity to the activities of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

The minister made the promise in Abuja when his humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation counterpart, Betta Edu, paid him a visit.

Idris said the ministry would provide effective coverage for the ministry’s activities which he noted were targeted at addressing humanitarian crises and poverty reduction.

“The Social Register has been disputed in the past by state governors and many stakeholders. So, the first assignment of the humanitarian minister is to strengthen that document.

“The Social Register needs to be clean so that everyone will have faith in the document. The Register is very important because without data, planning becomes very difficult.

“Our job here is to ensure that every policy and programme of the government is publicised to ensure better understanding. Such good understanding will generate goodwill from the public.

“So, you have come to the right place. We have Federal Information Centres across the country and representation in the 774 local government areas through National Orientation Agency.

“The ministry also has the News Agency of Nigeria, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Nigerian Television Authority and Voice of Nigeria.

“As a public institution, we have the responsibility to report government activities in the best, most honest, positive and transparent manner,” Idris pointed out.

The information minister said that President Bola Tinubu’s eight-point Renewed Hope agenda is rooted in the need to be truthful, honest, transparent and accountable.

“This commitment to the truth is what this ministry upholds.

“We are so happy with the way you quickly identified the need for this partnership. It is very important.

“I assure you that we will work with you to ensure that all your programmes are propagated to Nigerians.

“All hands will be on deck. We will continue to collaborate and engage with you all the way,” Idris said.

Speaking earlier, Edu said the reason for the visit was to build a partnership that would help propagate the programmes of her ministry.

She explained that Tinubu had made certain commitments through the eight-point agenda with food security and poverty eradication as top priorities.

“We need publicity; we need to win the confidence of the populace. We need to seal the communication gap between the government and the people it governs.

“We have about 16 million people that are affected by humanitarian crises. We have programmes to help alleviate poverty and build shelter for people affected by humanitarian crises.

“The programmes include Renewed Hope Shelter, Home Grown School Feeding Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer, Traders Moni, Farmers Moni, Market Women Moni, N-Power, and many others.

“As we go out for the implementation of these programmes, we want to work together with the agencies under your ministry, especially the National Orientation Agency, which has representations across the country.

“We want to run a transparent system that will tell Nigerians what we are doing. We need you on this,” Edu said.