By David Torough, Abuja

The Mandate Secretary, Youths Social Development Secretariat, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Abdulahi Suleiman has advised Nigerians especially the youths to take advantage of the social media to develop themselves and contribute to the socioeconomic development of the country.

Suleiman who spoke at the official launch of Social Media Digest Summit at five also described social media as necessary evil and two edged swords in the 21st century also urged the youths to metamorphose the negative aspects into positivityHe Nigerians urged to desist from circulating fake news to promote peace and tranquility for national developmentAccording to him, “Most crisis generated in Nigeria and the global world is often caused by fake news, hence need to change the narrative is imperative stressing that the social media is a multi-billion naira platform and appealed especially to youths to take advantage of making a genuine living instead of heating up the polity”On his part, the Mandate Secretary, Social Development Secretariat Alh Ibrahim Aminu represented by the Director, Tourism Department of the National Council for Arts Culture NCAC, Nenadi Ann Dogo said the social media plays a vital role in our daily life’s and influencing people’s perception on a daily basis”As stakeholders it is our collective responsibility to project the positive aspect under the vision of president Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda””The Forum will provide an avenue to educate, inspire and also challenge the social media users not only to harness the platform for good but, to also counter negative narrative by using the power of the medium to showcase Nigeria as a vibrant tourism destination””Let’s remember that any post, tweets and videos has the power to build and tear town, together we can create a digital space that celebrates the remarkable strides in the FCT administration while promoting unity, peace and development, Dogo added”In a keynote address, a legal practitioner Sabastian Hon, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said the power of the social media space cannot be underestimated as it has generated and incited a lot of violence among nations, countries and individuals over time’Because social media whether we like it or not has come to stay as news watch report of November 2024 reported that during a prime of news daily, the viewership of CNN has reduced drastically by 62 percent as many people now prefer the social media between the ages of 16-24years”Social media contributes to economic activities no about that, because we have alot of people earning millions of dollars using social media handles, platforms, pages so, our youths should re-direct their attention to the positive aspect of it”The Convener of the program Jacob Wuese, said the Social Media Digest summit is a Non- Governmental Organisation NGO, aimed at promoting an impactful and positive use of the social media platform by users in line with global best practices’Our vision is to project the benefits of social media to the teeming population of Nigerians especially the youths in Africa and the entire world at large after several summit over the years this year’s theme; Social Media: A Tool for Development in a Renewed Hope Era,”The Sole purpose is to leverage to the maximum as many benefits of social media has so far enlightened millions of users on the positive use with collaborative effort of the government, individuals and Non-governmental Organisation. ”