USING OFFICIAL CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION TO PROMOTE GOOD GOVERNANCE IN BAYELSA STATE” BEING A PAPER PRESENTED BY HIGH CHIEF BOMA SPERO-JACK, CHAIRMAN, BAYELSA PUBLIC INFORMATION MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE ON THE OCCASION OF THE TOWN HALL MEETING HELD IN OGBIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF BAYELSA STATE ON NOVEMBER 14, 2013 PROTOCOL Introduction: It is my singular honour and privilege to stand before the great people of Ogbia Kingdom to deliver this lecture. Three things make the lecture very significant. Firstly, we are in an era where there is an information revolution and governance at all levels is propelled by the information age, some call it globalization. . Secondly, the Restoration administration of Governor Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson places premium on the use of information dissemination to promote transparency, accountability and good governance. This underscores why, from the onset, government instituted the Monthly Transparency Briefing. It was for this reason that the Bayelsa Public information Management Committee was inaugurated with a mandate of bridge the information gap between government and the people at the grassroots. Thirdly, Ogbia Local Government Area is the cradle of Nigeria’s crude oil economy and the primary constituency of President Goodluck Jonathan who is the first citizen of the country. Ogbia also produced the first Executive Governor of Old Rivers State. Let me express my sincere gratitude to the Governor of Bayelsa State for creating this platform for us to interact and communicate our policies and programmes to the grassroots. The Town Hall Meetings will be organized at periodic intervals to keep the people abreast of government policies and programmes. Conceptual Clarification In this paper, two concepts stand out. They are COMMUNICATION and GOOD GOVERNANCE. The Clarification of these two concepts will help simplify the analysis. The term Communication derives from Latin commūnicāre, meaning to share Communication is an activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior. Communication is “any act by which one person gives to or receives from person information about that persons needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states. For Communication to take place there must be four elements namely: a sender, a message, a medium and a receiver. The Communication process is only complete when the receiver understands the message and gives a feedback. This implies that parties involved in Communication share an area of communicative commonality. Communicating with others involves three primary steps: These include the thought which exists in the mind of the sender. The thought can be a concept, idea, information, or feelings. Then there must be encoding, which implies that the message must be sent to a receiver in words or symbols. The last stage is decoding, which connotes the ability of the receiver to translate the words or symbols into a concept or information that a person can understand. It is when the message is properly decoded that a feedback can be given to the sender. SENDER---ENCODED MESSAGE-----MEDIUM------RECEIVER The second term is GOOD GOVERNANCE. Generally, governance refers to the manner in which power is exercised by governments in managing a countrys social and economic resources. Good governance is the exercise of power by various levels of government that is effective, honest, equitable, transparent and accountable. One way of defining good governance is to identify its characteristics. There is consensus among scholars that when a government is characterized by technical and managerial competence; organizational capacity; reliability, predictability and the rule of law, then good governance is inherent in that system. However, the World Bank, (1998) has recognized governance problems in their efforts to promote economic and social development in many developing countries. The governance problems refer mainly to two issues namely: the abuse of public funds by local elite groups and the ignorance of local political practices by the international donors. Accordingly, the World Bank identified some characteristic of good governance, which includes public accountability, rule of law, transparency, and citizen participation. Accountability simply means that public officials should be answerable to the people in terms of how they use their powers and resources. Public participation refers to the involvement of citizens in the development process including decision-making. In our own parlance, It means carrying the people along. The third strand is predictability which means that a conducive legal environment should be created for development to occur. The fourth ingredient is transparency connotes the availability of information to the public and the clarification of government rules, regulations, and decisions. In fact, in a logical order, transparency even comes first before accountability. Other ancillary factors include people-oriented policies and responsiveness. Duggan & Linda (2004). It can therefore be asserted that any government that is guided by transparency, accountability, consensus building, popular participation and the rule of law practices good governance. Added to the aforementioned characteristics include responsiveness. Good governance requires that institutions and processes must be designed to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe. Another ingredient is Equity and inclusiveness, which implies that government must ensure that decision-making, involves as many stakeholders as possible. The Town Hall Meeting today is part of efforts to engender inclusiveness. The other feature is effectiveness and efficiency. Good governance means that processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of society while making the best use of resources at their disposal. The concept of efficiency in the context of good governance also covers the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment. The characteristics are shown below in figure 1. Figure 1, shows the characteristics of good governance (Source: UNESCEP 2013) RESTORATION ADMINISTRATION AND CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION On assumption of office, Governor Seriake Dickson was confronted with a bloated wage bill, colossal debt profile owed by the immediate past administration and a work force that lacked diligence and ethical standards. The Governor had to reconfigure the architecture of information dissemination in such a way that no segment of the society is left out. First, is to re-engineer the Ministry of Information & Orientation, which deals with Public Information emanating from the State. Secondly, we have a Media Team under the office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor. This office comprises those in the social media, electronic media, including the Television and the Print Media and other media consultants. Thirdly, in March, 2013, the Governor inaugurated the the Bayelsa Public Information Management Committee with my humble self as Chairman. This Committee which serves as a clearing House of information dissemination in the State. In fact, we are mandated to reach out to the grassroots to bridge whatever gap that existed in information dissemination and more importantly to curb the debilitating scourge of misinformation, which was fast becoming a stock in trade by politicians on the other side of the divide. Our Committee is to enable people exercise free speech and not to gag the people because we know free speech is a fundamental human right. We also have the Bayelsa Social Media Committee which fortifies the cyber space and interfaces with other publishing outfits. The State-owned Niger Delta Television, the Bayelsa State Broadcasting Corporation, the Nigerian Television and the State-owned Newwaves Newspapers have also keyed into the robust mechanism of information flow. Periodically, strategic meetings are held to harmonize information dissemination in the State. In the office of the Deputy Governor, there is a Media Team which works in synergy with the office of the Governor and the Ministry of Information and Orientation. The aim is to streamline information management to achieve the goals of the Restoration administration. The Secretariat of the Bayelsa Public Information Management Committee is located at SAPTEX Road, Yenagoa. We expect stakeholders to make inquiries, ask questions, and lodge complaints about any issue of concern so they can be torchbearers of truth, transparency and leadership in Bayelsa State. For those who cannot come to the office, please, call the hotlines: 07030992208; 08101259810; 08101259782 and you will get prompt responses. By popular demand and in response to the dynamic needs of our society, we have plans to use information officers in the LGAs to collate information at the grassroots and make them available to the Centre to aid policy making and implementation. This may materialize next year. We are all aware that Governor Seriake Dickson has introduced the Monthly Transparency Briefing. Bayelsans are taking advantage of the Briefing to know how much monies accrue to the State and how monies are spent. This practice is replicated at the Local Government level. Sadly, It has been observed that some stakeholders do not attend such Briefings, and such people can easily be misinformed. Frankly, some of them peddle misinformation even after such bouts of Monthly Transparency Briefings. This must be discouraged. We have our representatives at the local, State and National levels. If our Communities face urgent challenges that need government attention, we can always reach out to them for truthful, timely and accurate information. As representatives, they are holding power in trust for the people hence they are accountable to the people. Here in Ogbia Local Government Area, there is an umbrella body called the Ogbia Brotherhood with an executive Council. This body provides another channel of communication. In this body, there are the CDC Chairmen, Women leaders, Youth leaders, traditional rulers and opinion leaders. I could remember last year during the constituency hearing of the constitutional amendment, all these groups either spoke or presented position papers encapsulating their needs and priorities. The OGBIA BROTHERHOOD constitutes another channel of Communication. This should be encouraged at the State level. TOOLS OF COMMUNICATION 1. Email Blasts: 2. Flyers/Handouts/Brochures/Bookmarks: 3. Newsletters: 4. Print: Printed publicity materials such as promotional flyers, handouts and bookmarks are effective channels of communication between Government and the people. 5. Letters: Letters can help you make connections within stakeholders. 6. Media: Here, both the electronic, print and social media can be used. 7. Phone: A phone call can be an effective means of communication, especially for more immediate back-and-forth, or if you want to share more in-depth information. 8. Website & Blogs These are quick and easily accessible; the website is an excellent tool to promote your government’s programs and services. It also facilitates communicating government policies to the people. Facebook: Enables government highlight events, including updates on the day-to-day activities of government. Twitter: Sending tweets out to the people enhances communication at a faster speed. Twitter is a great tool for connecting people online and offline to your event. Town Crier: At the local level, the use of town criers is an effective tool of communication. Courtesy visits are very potent strategies of communicating with government. It is an official channel. This can be followed up by writing a Memoranda or position paper to government about a particular area of need. It is only through the official channels of communication that the public will know that the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure has awarded more than 88 contracts, with more than 40 % of them completed. The Ministry of Education has either renovated or built 200 schools while the Bayelsa State Universal Basic Education has renovated or built 200 schools and furnished them. The Ministry of Special Project has embarked on very impressive projects such as the Police officers Mess, the Secretariat of the Traditional Rulers Council etc.t The Restoration Transport System is working efficiently and effectively. Nobody can fault that the Free Education Programme has come on stream. It is a fact that the tourism potentials of the State are gradually being unraveled and tapped. Similarly, the Bayelsa Investment Promotion Company has started to attract Foreign Direct Investment. Investments could only be made possible when there is security and people, which the Dickson Administration has provided. That the security architecture has created an enabling environment to attract investors. Roads are being dualized and new ones constructed and our Governor has signed several MOUs to bring in investors to create jobs, reduce poverty and create wealth. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, It was Frederick Douglas who said “To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker” The Town Hall Meeting will afford us the opportunity to hear from you, to feel your pulse about government policies, to know your challenges and how you appreciate the Restoration Administration. We have an interactive session in which we will entertain questions, comments, remarks, recommendations and frank discussions. CONCLUSION Communication is the cord that links one person and another. It is the thread that connects the world into a global village. We know that good communication is central to the success of government programs and service delivery. Even if it’s just a one-time event, keeping in contact with everyone who attended could result in invaluable contacts or lifelong friendships through networking. The most potent factor to consider is in communication is the Audience. In Government, everybody needs to be informed about the policies, plans and programmes. The second factor is What to Communicate. Here, the content of what is communicated must be understood by the audience. Using official channels of Communication • Builds trust between government and the people and therefore create no room for misinformation. • Updates the people on the day to day activities of government. • Keeps the people abreast of the policies, plans and programmes of government • Enables the masses to attend government events and functions to obtain first hand information. • Enhances buy-in to government programmes and elicits mass participation • Facilitates the understanding of government plans, policies and programmes. One of the main challenges facing Nigeria is the trust deficit between the people and government. Effective Communication bridges that gap deficit • Communication promotes accountability and responsiveness to the aspirations of the people. Information is power and Communication increases individual capacity. Communication promotes consultation and dialogue between the State and citizens, which in principle can improve public understanding of and support for government policies and encourage citizen ownership of reforms. Access to information and government transparency are vital for enabling citizens to monitor and hold government to account for its actions. By the same token, an informed and politically active electorate strengthens the demand for governments to be accountable and that is better achieved through communication. Once more, I wish to thank you most sincerely for finding time out of your crowded schedule to attend this all important Town Hall Meeting. We appreciate your painstaking efforts in comporting yourself to listen to this epistle. You should be rest assured that your free, frank and objective discussions will be conveyed to the appropriate quarters and they will attract government’s attention sooner than later. Thank you for your kind attention. High Chief Boma Spero-Jack JP, Chairman, Bayelsa Public Information Management Committee 14/11/2013 References: 1. Damamola, I. (1999). Law & Ethics of Media Practice Lagos: Owonike Rainbow Press Ltd 2. Duggan, F. and Linda, B. (2004) “Constructing a Model of Effective Information 2. Dissemination in a Crisis”. Information Research. 9 (3) April. (Available at informationr.net/ir/9-3/paper 178.html) Accessed on November 15th 2006. 3. Granger, B. and Glen, W. (2001) Developing an Effective Dissemination Plan. National Centre for the Dissemination of Disability Research. January. (Available at ncddr.org/du/products/dissplan.html) Accessed on Oct. 18th 2006. 4. Odugbemi, S., 2008, ‘Public Opinion, the Public Sphere, and Quality of Governance: An Exploration’, in Governance Reform under Real World Conditions, eds. S. Odugbemi and T. Jacobson, World Bank, pp.15-37 5. Spero-Jack, B (2013). “A welcome address delivered in Sagbama Town on the Occasion of the Town Hall Meeting in Sagbama Local Government of Bayelsa State on 24th October, 2013. 6. Wilson. M., Warnock, K., and Shoemaker, M., (2007) ‘At the Heart of Change: The Role of Communication in Sustainable Development’, Panos Institute, London 7. CommGAP, 2011, The Contribution of Government Communication Capacity to Achieving Good Governance Outcomes, Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP), World Bank, Washington, DC 8. Przeworski Adams (2009). Democracy and Development: Political Institution and Well-being in the World 1950-1990.London. Cambridge University Press. 9. The World Bank (1998) Promoting good governance in Africa. Washington
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 00:50:45 +0000
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