A fellow of Nigerian Association for Educational Administration and Planning (NAEAP), Prof. Maicibi Alhasan Nok of Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK), has called on the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, regulate the use of social media in Nigeria in order to halt the spread of false information.
Maicibi made this appeal at the 37th Annual National Conference for NAEAP organised by NSUK, with the theme, “Managing Education for National Cohesion and Global Competitiveness” on the campus.
The Professor of Educational Planning, Management and Administration opined that educational information technology should be used for enhancing social cohesion by enlightening citizens on how to vote wisely and demand accountability from leaders rather than taking the IT education as citizen journalism, which endangers Nigeria’s nascent democracy.
Prof. Maicibi maintained that the negative role of social media of spreading fake news and share false information to the general public is really a great menace, and appealed to federal legislators to strategise, monitor and punish any individual found spreading falsehood, unguarded and harmful information, citing countries that went into war as a result of social media abuse.
“Several countries had fallen into civil wars due to social media misuse,” he warned.
Similarly, the NAEAP president, Prof David Olufemi Durosaro disclosed that the association has over 140, 000 members across all spheres of academia, including school teachers, head teachers, principals of schools, provosts, rectors, vice chancellors, proprietors of private institutions and officials of ministries of education, both at state and federal levels, among others.
Prof. Olufemi, represented by his vice, Dr. Gospel G. Kpee of the University of Port Harcourt, stated that the major challenge confronting leadership in Nigeria is how education can be used as a tool for promoting national cohesion and global competitiveness, rather than a divisive tool.
He therefore, frowned at the basic issues that make present educationist ineffective, stressing that today’s graduates lack employable skills to enable them function in the labour market.
He however, said that some graduates have acquired the necessary skills but lack honesty, punctuality, work attitude, effective communication and discipline.
Olufemi urged school owners to place much emphasis on school curricula to teach more of leadership and societal values rather than imbibe in students foreign values and cultures.
He added that the conference aimed at proffering solution on how to explore and devise new strategies for managing functional education in Nigeria for quality leadership, values and reorientation for sustainable development
