Enabling the public make informed decisions

Government has made several efforts to ensure that cabinet ministers communicate regularly on their activities.

It is commonplace in Cameroon to hear journalists – on both sides of the public/independent media divide – complain about the challenges they encounter almost on a daily basis in accessing information from official sources. While many reasons are advanced for this state of affairs, government has not been indifferent to the situation.

In the last 20 years, different Prime Ministers have directed cabinet ministers to communicate regularly on their activities. This was followed up by the organisation of press conferences, even though the frequency appears to have died down.

On the other hand, the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, has a made it a duty to organise regular press conferences to brief the media on burning national and international issues. Apart from joining other ministers at their press conferences, the Minister has kept his doors open by responding at short notice on phone to questions from both national and foreign correspondents.

Similarly, most, if not all government ministries, and several departments and agencies, now run websites, even though updating the information is often a problem. Earlier this year, President Paul Biya directed cabinet ministers to make greater use of social media to communicate to the public. The instantaneous nature of social media communication means that government officials need to join the trend in order to keep the public abreast of what they are doing.

Instead of traditional handshakes, word-of-mouth referrals and stamped letters, today’s communication has gone digital. A number of social networking sites are commonly used in Cameroon. They include Google +, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Other less familiar sites are Xing, Renren, Disqus, Pulse, Snapchat, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twoo, MyMFB, Instagram, Vine, vk.com, Meetup, Secret and Medium. The usefulness of social media in today’s communication and interaction cannot be overlooked.

Cabinet ministers and their communication aides, managers of State and private corporations, heads of government agencies and directors, therefore need to use social platforms to remain relevant in today’s fast-evolving communication landscape.