The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, announced his presence on Instagram, the foremost picture sharing site, earlier today. With the growing popularity of social media among Nigeria’s youth, public officials have intensified efforts to maintain active accounts on sites such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram in order to ensure seamless communication between them and their constituents.

The Speaker, who shared a picture from his inauguration in June 2015, said he was on the app to ensure that Nigerians are not kept in the dark regarding his activities as Speaker. The caption read: “On June 9th, 2015, I assumed the mantle of leadership of the House of Representatives. I have always believed that as representatives of the people, we must use all tools at our disposal to ensure that those we represent are not kept in the dark about our activities. This, therefore, is to officially announce my presence on this platform, and I look forward to gaining feedback from you all. I'm here to keep you informed, but more importantly, I'm here to listen to you.

The Speaker then went on to post pictures with the Minister for Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was at the House yesterday to participate in the sectoral debate on diversifying the economy.

Sectoral debates are a legislative initiative targeted at in-depth discussion of challenges in order to create new laws which would effectively solve them, or aid with making the required amendments to existing legislation. The first phase of the debate will last for the rest of the week, with the ministers for agriculture, finance and solid minerals scheduled to make presentations.