A non-governmental organisation, Yiaga Africa, has called on legislators to leverage the new media, including digital and social media platforms, to influence public perception.

This is to help rebuild citizens’ trust in the legislature and, by extension, governmental activities.

The organisation made the call on Friday in Lagos at a three-day retreat for some legislators, with the theme, “Inaugural Retreat for the House Committee, Media, and Public Affairs.’’.

Coordinator, Yiaga Africa Centre for Legislative Engagement, Dr Samuel Oguche, said the retreat was aimed at giving the participants the platform to brainstorm on issues that will drive the activities of the committee to meet public expectations.

“This committee has been able to open new frontiers to public affairs and information dissemination. This legislature can be doing its best, but when the information is not put out there, the people will not know how far they have come,” he said.

Similarly, Executive Director, International Press Centre, Lanre Arogundade, said the perception of citizens was a challenge the legislature would need to manage effectively in their rebranding process.

Mr Arogundade said to address this issue, the legislature would need to engage more with the people.

“Don’t think that there is any information that is not useful when it comes to social media. It has become an integral part of modern society’s daily life and information itself is developing rapidly,” he said.

Mr Arogundade urged the lawmakers to seek ways new media could be harnessed to focus on developmental issues.

He recommended that the legislature build active digital media teams to harvest information on trending public issues.

Other recommendations include active interactions and participations on social media; tweeting their engagements and talks on issues affecting people; sharing updates on relevant information about activities; and responding to queries.

Chairman, House Committee, Media and Public Affairs, Akintunde Rotimi, said the task of the legislators was to manage and build an identity as well as image that could enable them function effectively.

Mr Rotimi, a lawmaker representing Ekiti North 1 Federal Constituency, said, “Many Nigerians have the perception that the National Assembly leaders and the political elite, generally, are never doing well and don’t have good intentions for the country. It’s a historical reputational deficit. This is what we in the 10th Assembly are trying to address. We are intentional in the 10th Assembly. We want to be held responsible and accountable for the promises that we have made.” 

(NAN)