The Federal Government has expressed concern over the decline in trust between Nigerians and their leaders and has announced plans to reintroduce a national discourse on reorientation.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, made the disclosure while speaking to State House correspondents after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.

Idris said that the president had given him the marching orders to initiate a programme to reconstruct the belief in the concept of nationhood and patriotism, which he said had broken down.

“Well, of course, you know that the belief in the concept of nationhood and patriotism has broken down in this country. This is not in doubt. We’re trying to rebuild that, to reconstruct that,” he said.

The minister lamented that Nigerians no longer believe in the leaders they have elected and that flags were no longer flying in public buildings.

He said that the new reorientation drive would focus on bringing back discipline, patriotism, and belief in the nationhood that Nigeria’s founding fathers had envisioned.

Idris also revealed that plans were underway to revive the information office in the 774 local government areas in the country in order to have the required personnel to implement the new reorientation drive.

He assured that the Tinubu administration would not seek to gag the media, being a believer in freedom of the press himself, but warned that the media must exercise such freedom with responsibility.