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Opposition Using Fake News As Campaign Tool Against Buhari – FG

Published

6 years ago

August 6, 2018

The Federal Government has accused the opposition of resorting to the use of fake news as a campaign tool against the Buhari Administration ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the allegation in Abuja on Monday when he visited the corporate headquarters of the Authority Newspapers to kick-start the media tour in furtherance of the campaign against fake news, which was recently launched by the federal government.

He said because the Buhari administration was performing well, the political opposition believed that the best way to de-market the administration was by latching on to fake news to create religious and ethnic disharmony and throw the country into turmoil.

He said, “With the Buhari administration delivering on its promises to fight corruption, build the nation’s economy and tackle insecurity, the opposition has realised it will not make any impact if it takes on the administration on that turf.

“So, it has decided to take the easy route, which is to use fake news and hate speech to de-market the administration, pitch Christians against Muslims and one ethnic group against another.”

Mohammed said the opposition has thrown caution to the wind in its futile attempt to divide Nigeria along ethnic and religious lines by using fake news to blame all the killings in a certain part of the country on herdsmen, ignoring the bands of deadly militia groups that are being sponsored by unscrupulous people to kill innocent people and put the nation on the edge.

He cited the example of how the opposition was allegedly distorting the fact that the clashes between the farmers and herders were being aggravated by climate change, which he said had heightened the contest for scarce natural resources like water and land -as well as demographic pressure.

He said the morbid fear the opposition harbours is that when he is re-elected in 2019, President Buhari will consolidate on the fight against corruption, has thrown the opposition camp into confusion, hence the frenzy with which they fabricate and publish fake news in order to cast the government in bad light.