Fake News Greatest Threat To 2019 Elections – Lai Mohammed

 The Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has decried the spread of fake news in Nigeria saying fake news portend great threat to the 2019 general elections.

Alhaji Mohammed, who made the submissions in a presentation at The Chatham House in London, said 2019 elections would indicate whether Nigerians have learnt any lessons from the ethno-religious tension, which characterised the last general elections.

He said: “As the 2019 general elections approach, Nigeria faces a new challenge, a threat not just to the country peace and security, but indeed its very existence. It is the dual challenge of fake news and hate speech.

“Yes, the fake news problem is not unique to Nigeria, but it poses a more potent threat to the country because of its multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural status. It is also a clear and present danger to the nation’s unity. Naysayers have latched onto the fake news phenomenon to exploit the country’s fault lines and inflame passion

“For example, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) recently did a report on how fake news is aggravating the persistent farmers-herders clashes. Pictures of gun-toting herdsmen from other lands are routinely used to depict the herdsmen in Nigeria. Age-long clashes between farmers and herders have suddenly been dressed in the garb of religion and ethnicity.

“Ignored is the fact that the clashes have become more persistent because of a mixture of many factors, including population explosion, effects of climate change, keener contest for dwindling natural resources and sheer criminality. Religion and ethnicity are not the reasons for these clashes.”

Mohammed explained that the Federal Government spent N2.7trillion on infrastructure in the last three and a half years. He also said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has dislodged Boko Haram insurgents who no longer have capacity to attack unlike before Buhari came on board when Boko Haram was controlling territories, which were almost the size of Lebanon.