Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has asked those that
always refer to him as "Lie" Mohammed and accuse him of always telling a
lie, to state one lie he has told since assuming office. The Minister
said this in an interview with AIT Friday.
"People just have a mindset that whatever Lai Mohammed says cannot be
true, but nobody has ever come out to say that I said `Y’ and it was `Z’
that happened. For me, I will remain focused because it is a price you
pay for serving your country. I also see this as a deliberate strategy
to whittle me down, but I must remain focused and will not be
distracted.
I believe sincerely that the last election was fought very bitterly and I
was largely the face of the party and I kept asking them to fight me on
facts, not on emotions. Give me one thing that I have said which is not
true. There is a Yoruba proverb that says that you can only wake up
somebody who is sleeping, you cannot wake up a fellow who is pretending
to fall asleep,’’ he said.
He added that Nigeria is currently under the seige of disinformation and fake news.
"The country today is under the siege of disinformation and fake news.
Unfortunately this dangerous trend, if not checked by the media,
especially the traditional media, is capable of tearing the fabric of
the society and bringing the country to its knees. My greatest problem
is with the traditional media, because most people will probably say
social media is what it is.
But when the traditional media also latches on the same fake news and
the same disinformation, then I begin to get worried for many reasons.
Number one, it affects the credibility of the media itself and once the
media is no longer believed, once the media loses its credibility, then
it has serious consequences for the media and the society as a whole.”
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