Minister Nabakooba asks for more space in media

Change of office. Outgoing Minister for Information, ICT & Communications Frank Tumwebaze (left) hands over office to the new minister Judith Nabakooba, (centre) and her junior Peter Ogwang. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA

What you need to know:

  • The ICT ministry was created in 2006 to provide leadership, coordination, support and advocacy in the formulation of policy, laws, regulations and strategy for the ICT sector and also foster national development goals.

The newly-appointed minister for Information, ICT and Communications, Ms Judith Nabakooba, has appealed to media house managers to avail more space for government development programmes instead of politics.

Speaking at the handover ceremony held at their offices in Kampala yesterday, Ms Nabakooba noted that media houses have often focused their efforts on politics and neglecting developmental government programmnes that directly benefit citizens.

“If media houses put more emphasis on service delivery and tasking Cabinet to explain where gaps are noticed, economic evils like corruption and bribery will be dealt with,” she said.

Ms Nabakooba added that media is the appropriate means of communication, which can be used to inform the public on what is happening in government agencies and also to fight corruption.

She vowed to put the President’s task of fighting corruption using her ICT ministry in practice.
“The President gave us six points but one of them was corruption, he said he is tired of corrupt people and he wants to see leaders delivering services to Ugandans,” she said.

The minister added that they are going to organise visits with the permanent secretaries and see what they have done and challenges they are facing in regards to their policy statements and see how they can lobby resources.

Outgoing ICT minister Frank Tumwebaze called for the formalisation of social media as an organised diplomatic form of communication. “Government needs to tap into the opportunity of social media channels like Twitter and Facebook since they reach many people globally,” he said.

Mr Tumwebaze added that they have been encouraging government agencies, ministries and departments to adopt the digital media and be responsive to citizens online.
“We need citizens to recognise social media as a form of communication,” he said.

The ICT ministry was created in 2006 to provide leadership, coordination, support and advocacy in the formulation of policy, laws, regulations and strategy for the ICT sector and also foster national development goals.