By Saminu Ibrahim
The chairman, House of Representatives committee on Public Affairs, Honourable Benjamin Kalu has observed that tradition and convention must give room for innovation, “if we are going to achieve the kind of information management, public engagement that the speaker of the House of Representatives in the 9th Assembly, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila desires”.
Kalu stressed that for the House to achieve the objectives of the legislative agenda of the 9th Assembly, as it concerns public engagement, bringing the parliament closer to the people is germane.
The Spokesman of the House of Representatives spoke on Tuesday, when he played host to the leadership and members of the National Assembly New Media Forum in Abuja.
He explained that commercial dissemination of information had before now bastardised the perception of the public of the image of the National Assembly.
He bemoaned that the National Assembly has a very fragile image, saying that has been fueled by wrong narratives pushed through mediums that ordinarily suppose to be telling the stories the way they are.
“Technology makes the job easy, technology makes access to information better, and faster. Technology makes you feel the piece of information as if you were there”.
The lawmaker however noted “while I do not condemn the conventional media operations, statistics have shown that the online media is quicker in pushing out information on any event.
“But the fear has been that the traditional media over the years have passed through a lot of experiences, it has built a block of knowledge that has helped sustain the principles of good journalism.
“While the New Media is the new child in the block that came with innovation, but appears to be a risky platform for information managers who are still scared that this platforms are not dependable platforms”.
According to Kalu, tohe House of Representatives is willing to partner with the online media, “especially under my watch as the spokesman of the House of Representatives”.
“Good enough, the Speaker is very interested in working with you. If the Speaker did not show interest in working with you I will not be here. The Speaker has shown interest that we need to do a diversification of media platform so that we can achieve our aim of dissolving the opaque view of the National Assembly, this cloud, the veil that have enveloped the activity of the National Assembly”.
He maintained that “the more we crack it, unveil it the more transparent we become before the people we are representing, and the more they understand through platforms of transparency, the more they understand what we do, the more we are accountable to them, the more the credibility of this institution will rise”.
He revealed that why the public is attacking the National Assembly is because they don’t seem to understand “what we are doing here”.
Consequently, Kalu said the leadership of the House came out with the Green Chamber magazine which is out there educating the public on the activities of the House of Representatives from the horses’ mouth.
“The magazine is out there telling our stories, not for the purpose of self-praise, but to change the narratives with the truth and not commercialized facts, or views. And it is working, whether that is enough, the answer is no.
“And that is why we seek strategic partnership with people like you, the online media who control the bulk of social media participants. I know most of you are social media influencers, so strategic partnership with you means that the stake that you are holding, the New Media industry automatically becomes our mouthpiece, so we can speak through you” Kalu said.
Earlier, chairman of the forum, Yemi Itodo, applauded the lawmaker for hosting the forum and pledged credible reportage of the 9th National Assembly, without bias.
