Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Deputy Governor of Abia State, Ikechukwu Emetu, an Engineer, has said that only public office holders who have skeletons in their cupboards that are scared of the social media.
Emetu who made the comment at the Vision Africa 10th Media Training Institute held Monday at Vision Africa Radio Umuahia, said he would never lose sleep over the social media because he had nothing to hide.
The Deputy Governor who represented his principal, Dr Alex Otti at the event, said the social media help to put public office holders in check “so they don’t derail.”
“Social media will help us to know when we are derailing. We welcome constructive criticism. So, we are not afraid of social media.
The Deputy Governor, however, advised social media practitioners not to propagate falsehood or use it as a platform for blackmail.
“They must be factual and report responsibly to avoid misleading the public or creating unnecessary tension.
“Last week they gave me a name. They called me King Herod because of the way we are taking the hooligans off the street but that won’t make me to reduce the steam.
“We will not relent until we rid Abia of those elements causing problems, extorting money from motorists.”
Fielding questions from newsmen later, the Deputy Governor disclosed that over 23 touts had so far been arrested since the clampdown on touting and extortion began.
“My driving force is the pain of Abia people who voted for us to end 24 years of intimidation. We have grown the tough skin to do what Abians voted us to do.
“We have arrested over 23 people who have been extorting money from motorists and disturbing the peace of Abians. We arrested some of them around 3:am along Ikwuano axis disturbing lorry drivers.
“Since they don’t want us and the people of Abia to have rest, definitely they will not be allowed to rest either.”
The Deputy Governor, however, hinted that Government is making arrangements to create job opportunities to positively engage repentant ones so they can be self reliant.
In his opening charge, the President, Vision Africa International, Bishop Sunday Onuoha, said the media training institute was designed to help shape the message of communication.
Bishop Onuoha who argued that media content must be appealing, informative and educative and not to cause pain, cautioned social media practitioners not to set society on fire with their messages.
The cleric who said that the training was organised to retrain media practitioners on communicating responsibly, advised participants to improve on their skills with “the take-aways” from the training.
He promised to sustain the annual training as part of his contribution in shaping the youths and media practitioners for a responsible future.
Speaking at the event, the Director General, National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, tasked journalists on objectivity, balance, and fairness in content creation and delivery.
He decried the damaging effects of the abuse of social media, and vowed that NBC would not hesitate to visit the full weight of the law on any station involved in fake news.
“Regrettably, everyone that has an iphone, android phone or any of such mobile device that connects to the internet has suddenly become a journalist, uploading contents that are unverifiable. Contents that, most often, turned out to be fake and misleading.
“This liberty aids in the promotion of hate speech with claims to the charter of freedom of speech and information. These practitioners have not only wreaked havoc by their contents, but have also plunged a number of societies into crisis.”
“As a regulator, we believe that in the changing world, fake news, misinformation, disinformation and hate speech must not be allowed to see the light of the day.”
The training was attended by media practitioners from different media outfits while resource persons and veterans from the United States of America, and university lecturers featured in the two-day event.
