Oyo State Government To Partner Online Publishers In The State.

The Oyo State Government has expressed readiness to partner with Online media practitioners in the state, in order to make information more accessible to citizens thereby fostering development in and around the state.

This was made known on Wednesday by the Commissioner for Information, Tourism and Culture, Mr. Toye Arulogun while receiving members of the Online Publishers’ Group, Oyo State chapter at his office in the State Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.

While speaking during the courtesy visit, the Chairman of the OPG, Mr. Yinka Agboola stressed the need to have access to information from the government especially to balance stories before publication and keep the citizens abreast of the government’s activities.

Mr. Arulogun who noted that there is a shift from information to communication said the government has stepped up efforts to make information available to people in the state and also educate and enlighten them about the government’s programmes. While also pointing out the necessity of getting feedback, the Commissioner made it known that the government has started the enforcement of payment of taxes, levies and duties. “What we do is go to the markets, talk to the leaders and let them understand what we want to do, we talk about the amounts traders are to pay and we get responses from them. We have also started enforcement with corporate bodies”.

Speaking on the Group’s relevance, Arulogun said “whether we like it or not, you are opinion moulders. A lot of people hold whatever goes online as the gospel truth. So, government on its own side must find a way to constructively engage your group, especially in terms of communicating with people”.

Speaking further, he said “even as civil servants, we need to change our orientation. What level of productivity are we generating to deserve our pay? We need to let our people know that it is about input and output. So we need to embark on a campaign to change the orientation of our people, how do we change work ethics, how do we make people see the advantages of what government is doing?

A lot of these things confront us on a daily basis and I believe this is the starting point. Where we are going is clear and for us to get to that destination, we all must travel in the same bus or train”, he said as he assured of a better flow of information between the government and the media.  

Credit: theanchoronline.