Lai Mohammed, minister of
information, says fake news is the only weapon used against a performing
government like theirs.
The minister said this on
Thursday when he visited People’s Daily newspaper in Abuja.
Mohammed alleged that respectable
media organisations make accusations against the president without backing
their claims with evidence.
He said the media is free to
criticise the president but it does not have the right to denigrate him because
he is the symbol of the country.
“Fake news has taken another
dimension. Now, it is not uncommon for otherwise respectable media
organisations to accuse the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
without backing up their accusation with an iota of evidence,” the minister
said.
“The latest of such occurred two
days ago, when a newspaper wrote an editorial in which it resorted to the use
of uncouth language to link the president to the farmers-herders clashes. In their eagerness to de-market the
President, they forget that the President is the symbol of Nigeria, and that by
denigrating him, they are denigrating the country.
“Unknown to them, by throwing
caution to the wind, they are not only denigrating the country, they are also
destroying themselves. The media is free to criticise the president, but it is
not right to denigrate the president.
“They are unrelenting, because
fake news is the only weapon they have against a performing administration like
ours. They know they cannot take on us on the issue of infrastructure, economy,
fight against corruption, agricultural development, etc. They have therefore
resorted to using fake news to de-market our administration. Thankfully, they
are failing.”
Mohammed said the purveyors of
fake news are perfecting plans to distort campaigns of 2019 general election.
“The purveyors of fake news in
Nigeria have not relented. If anything at all, they are perfecting their
strategy of using fake news to distort the campaign for next year’s general
elections,” he said.
“No doubt, the main target of the
naysayers is the Buhari administration. They have used fake news to aggravate
the farmers-herders clashes.
“If we can’t slay the monster of
fake news, we must at least tame it. All we are asking all Nigerians to do are
check the source of any news item being pushed their way [and] don’t share
whatever they cannot vouch for.”
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