Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, has tasked Nigeria’s online publishers to help in building a better image for the country.

Speaking while receiving a delegation of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) yesterday in her office, the minister lamented that “oftentimes it is Nigerians who run down Nigeria.”

“I would appeal that you focus strongly on building a better mage for Nigeria. We have a responsibility to build a positive image for Nigeria,” she said.

Mrs. Ochekpe expressed happiness over the advent of online publishing in the country, saying: “I see it as a means of expanding the means of information dissemination and opportunity being created for easy retrieval of information that we need for planning for the development of our country.”

She noted that the world has since gone online but Nigeria lagged behind until about two years ago when an increasing number of senior Nigerian journalists and editors accepted the challenge of publishing online newspapers.

The minister commended the country’s serious online publishers for setting up GOCOP in their bid to sanitise the emergent industry. “It is good that you have been able to set up an association for the purpose of regulation. I urge you to make efforts to enforce standards because it is one thing to set standards and anther to enforce them,” the minister said.

Earlier in his introductory remarks, GOCOP National Secretary Dotun Oladipo had explained the objectives of the Guild, which he said is determined to professionalise online publishing in the country and minimse the damage being done by quacks.

•Photo shows the GOCOP delegation in a group photograph with Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe . . . yesterday in Abuja.