Lagos holds Interactive Session with Community Media Practitioners

 By Ayodele Ifasakin 

…harps on the importance of objective information gatekeeping

Lagos holds Interactive Session with Community Media Practitioners

Lagos State Government on Friday, August 28, 2024 has charged community media practitioners to be objective with their roles as information gatekeepers when dissemination news to the publics at the grassroots.

SSA to the Governor on Local Government and Rural Development; Mr Babatunde Durojaiye gave this charge while delivering his keynote address during an interactive session with community media practitioners at the State Secretariat earlier today.

Mr Durojaiye iterated that the interactive session is targeted towards equipping Community Media Practitioners with requisite knowledge on grassroots information dissemination that will foster goodwill for this administration, especially in projecting the policies, programmes and achievements of the Sanwo-Olu led Administration, implemented through the T.H.E.M.E.S. Plus Agenda.

He harped on the crucial role community media practitioners play in ensuring that the masses are properly informed on the programmes and policies of the Government and how they can benefit from it. This, he said, is the major gatekeeping role that community media practitioners should perform.

He added that the role of the community media practitioner is crucial in shaping the mindset of the people about their government, hence the need for them to always ensure that the publics are exposed to the numerous projects and policies being executed by the Government both in rural and urban areas, and should also ensure that Government is made aware of the plights and needs of the people.

He stressed that the administration of Mr Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu has continued to invest into critical infrastructure needed in communities across the State and has also been providing grants and loans targeted majorly to rural dwellers who are into small and medium scale businesses in their communities.

“This is why it behoves on you as community media practitioners, who are information gatekeepers between the Government and the people at the grassroots to ensure policies and programmes of the Government that would benefit the people at the grassroots is properly disseminated to them, while also serving as a feedback medium for the Government”. He said.

Similarly, the Assistant Director, Public Affairs in the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Rural Development; Mr Kehinde Adebayo, while delivering his welcome address, thanked Mr Governor for approving the Interactive Session since his assumption into office.

He stated that Interactive session such as this affords the Ministry the opportunity to have periodic interface with Community Media Practitioners, thereby creating a platform where these practitioners can be properly informed on the numerous projects the administration of Mr Governor has executed across the State.

Adebayo also stressed on the integral role community media practitioners play in a State like Lagos, adding that the role of an information gatekeeper is a privileged role that must be performed with integrity.

“While performing this role, we must ensure we are transparent about our biases and conflicts of interest, and ensure we do not use it to paint Government in a bad light or create agitations in our Communities. As an unbiased Gatekeeper, we need to be accountable to our communities, as well as the Government by ensuring we amplify the voices of those who need to be heard and douse the voices that can cause anarchy in the society”. He said.

Publisher of the Lead Lagos Community Newspaper in Amuwo-Odofin; Adejumo Abayomi, while speaking on behalf of the participants, applauded the administration of Mr Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu for the continued inclusion of Community Media in information dissemination channels of the State.

He assured that Community Media Practitioners would continue to project the policies, programmes and the achievements of this administration across the 57 Councils of the State.

The interactive session which is the third of its kind since the inception of the administration of Mr Governor was well attended by seasoned facilitators and community media practitioners across the 57 Councils of the State.

LASG tasks staff on sound policy formulation, implementation

Lagos State Government has tasked its workforce to come up with suggestions on how to formulate and execute government policies that would address challenges confronting majority of the populace.

The State Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Akintola Benson-Oke gave the charge today at the opening session of a workshop tagged: Policy Analysis Development and Implementation, organised by the State Government for Policy Analysts in Lagos Public Service at Ikeja.

He maintained that those involved in government policy process need to possess strong analytical skills and ability to apply a variety of research and evaluation methods within a complex political and economic environment.

The Commissioner said that the training will review the analytical approaches that are essential for effective policy development in modern times.

The training will cover the nature and role of policy analysts and the interaction among social institutions, markets and government. It will examine how to conduct effective policy analysis, manage the policy development process, and produce sound and persuasive policy reports and recommendation to the government, he said.

He informed that policy-making and implementation functions in governance are important because governments are repeatedly confronted with problems that call for apt and appropriate solutions.

Benson-Oke added that challenges of governance in recent time have taken complex features and as such a government of metropolitan state like Lagos must have a pool of skilled, trained and current policy analysts and developers who will assist the government in designing the right, appropriate and sustainable answers to complex and urgent problems.

The Commissioner said that the present administration is taking up challenges to aspire to the highest standards of governance and administration that the citizens expect of the government.

He maintained that all the achievements of the Ambode-led administration since inception is hinged on the quality of reforms and policies enunciated by the government policy makers, adding that there is little or nothing that could be achieved by any government without a robust policy-making process.

He, therefore, urged participants to embrace the capacity development initiative and open their minds to new ideas that might emanate in the course of the training.


I exhort public policy analysts and developers in the Lagos State Public Service to learn to focus quickly on the central decision criterion of a problem requiring attention, avoid the Tool-box Approach to analysing policies and also learn how to deal with uncertainty, Benson-Oke reiterated.