A top journalist and Social Media Week Lagos 2013 host has said the Nigerian government is yet to fully understand the potential of social media despite the large number of Nigerians using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter daily.
Tolu Ogunlesi, an award winning freelance Nigerian journalist who chaired the Open Government and Social Media session, was speaking to HumanIPO this morning.
According to Ogunlesi, while some Nigerian government officials have active personal social media accounts, they can not authoritatively represent the opinion of the government.
“They are one-way and they don’t respond to Nigerians who attempt to connect with them,” Tolu Ogunlesi said.
He added the government needs thorough enlightenment on the use of social media in actively engaging the populace so that in addition to communicating their enacted policies, they will also get feedbacks from the citizens.
Concerning the President’s active Facebook account which has almost one million likes, he said it is a step in the right direction although a lot still has to be done.
