A call has been made by the Nigerian government to fight the Islamist Boko Haram terrorists in the northern region of Nigeria using intelligence gathered by citizens.
Demola Elesho, a veteran expert in the country’s telecoms sector, made the plea in his opening remarks at Social Media Week Lagos 2013.
According to Elesho, the government spends a huge sum of money in gathering intelligence via the Nigerian Army, Navy and other law enforcement and security agencies.
Some of this he said is not as reliable as that they could gather from citizens via text messages without incurring any cost.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim, said the government is putting motions in place to make the government more open.
According to him, the government is going into partnerships that will further advance active citizen involvement and engagement.
The Social Media Week Lagos 2013 officially began today with the Open Government and Social Media session held at the Lagos e-Learning Center.
HumanIPO will be reporting live from Social Media Week Lagos throughout the week. Keep up to date by following the website and our Twitter feed @HumanIPO
