By Stellamaris Ashinze
Lagos – Mr Runcie Chidebe, Founder, Project Pinkblue Foundation, has called for effective deployment of social media to facilitate achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Chidebe made the call while discussing “Social Media As a Tool to Achieve SDGs by 2030″, at the sixth edition of the Social Media Week Lagos which ended on Friday.
The event had the theme: ‘Closer’.
Project Pinkblue Foundation assists cancer patients through the use of technologies.
Chidebe said that, through the social media, SDG 5, which is achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, has received a reasonable attention.
Chidebe said that disruptive technologies are needed to meet the SDGs target time.
” Sometime in August 2017, we organised a programme and realised that there was no single radiotherapy machine in Nigeria except one privately-owned.
“We saw the need to go to government agencies but unfortunately did not succeed, until we decided to tweet the issue.
“I started tweeting with an article I wrote and tagged “Cancer patients paying with blood in Nigeria”.
“‘It got so much re-tweet that a few days after, the minister of health attended our event.
” The first thing he did even before his address was to respond to our tweet, saying that it was through such tweets that many issues could be addressed in Nigeria, ” Chidebe said.
Chidebe advised that one should know his target audience to be able to use social media well.
Mrs Adepeju Jaiyeoba, Founder Brown Button Foundation, remarked that social media could change the narrative of Nigeria .
She described the efficiency of social media as ‘using the ordinary to achieve the extraordinary’.
”It opens the country to the world,” she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Brown Button Foundation provides life-saving supplies to rural women.
NAN also reports that the 2018 Social Media Week Lagos, which started on Feb. 26, featured discussions covering the future of media, travel, governance, gender inclusion, entertainment and emerging ideas and trends across the globe. (NAN)
