Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has described an editorial by one of Nigeria’s prominent newspapers, Punch, as fake news.
Mohammed said this on Thursday, while speaking when People’s Daily newspaper visited him in Abuja.
The minister said the newspaper used “uncouth language” to make scathing allegations against President Muhammadu Buhari, without backed up evidence.
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He said the media is free to criticise the president but has no right to “denigrate” him as he is the symbol of Nigeria.
In the editorial, Punch reviewed the president’s handling of the killings by suspected herdsmen across the country, saying “President Muhammadu Buhari demonstrated his cluelessness afresh on Sunday when he blamed herders’ act of horrific violence on the shrinking Lake Chad and alleged biased media reports.”
In his response, Mohammed said: “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.”
The minister said purveyors of fake news are already planning on how to use fake news 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.”