By Femi Ogunshola, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
“If you incessantly repeat a lie, the lie would become reality,” says Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945.
Social media was recently awash with Buhari’s alleged move to take a new wife, the gossip gained much currency and like a wild fire spread without any official denial.
The rumour which emanated from social media was fuelled by the absence of the First Lady who later disclosed that her absence was due to ill health.
“Fake news will lead this country to something else if actions are not taken with immediate effect,” Aisha Buhari said on her return from the United Kingdom on Oct. 13
Her comment was sequel to President Muhammadu Buhari’s rumoured marriage to Hajia Sadiya Farouk, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
Section 39 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as Amended) provides for the freedom of speech and expression without limitation.
However such right does not exist in a vacuum, as it comes with criminal or civil defamation that could send the culprits to jail.
Though speculations were rife earlier that Aisha’s inability to pull her weight round the Villa recently was due to infighting, the Director of Information to the First Lady, Mr Suleiman Haruna, however debunked the insinuation, stating that there was nothing like infighting in Aso Villa due to the president’s wife absence in the country for about two months.
Some Nigerians, who would not want to take the information of the president’s proposed wedding with a pinch of salt, went further to `feed their eyes’ on Friday at Abuja Central Mosque.
The mosque prayer witnessed seemingly unprecedented number of faithful in
what appeared to be an attempt by some curious worshippers cum observers
to confirm or disbelief the story.
The wedding date was also widely circulated on the social media with
Facebook and Twitter users aiding its circulation.
Dr Nathan Oguche of the Department of Mass Communication, Kogi State
University, Ayingba, noted that the issue of fake news is a very complex one,
adding that when there was no information; people would sell what was
available.
He added that this notwithstanding, whether such information was real or not,
promoters of fake news would go to town with what was available.
According to him, when people are creating the issue of Buhari getting
married, it ought to be denied immediately.
“When you want to counter falsehood, you have to counter it with facts, but
when facts are not available, people will continue to perpetrate this falsehood
as facts until facts come to counter it,” he said.
He stated that when the citizenry were being suffocated and denied valuable
information, the only option left was for them to trade in falsehood with the
information at their disposal.
According to him, that is the basic problem we have within our government
and in our democratic set up.
“We must curtail fake news by bringing out facts and you have to use the
mainstream media to counter this falsehood,” he stated.
He observed that people thrive on fake news because there were online media
that were aware that fake news sold more than truth and in order to generate
traffic they spread fake news.
“You know in online news, your story is given prominence by the number of
times that those stories are read and in order to generate traffic to your
website, the handler deliberately sell out fake news,” Oguche noted.
Oguche said that as a communicator, it was easy for him to identify fake news,
adding that when the news of Buhari getting married was brought to him, he
took it with a pinch of salt.
According to him, I quickly dispel it even when there was no official
information from the president’s media aides.
“I just know within me that such information should not be trusted, so I did
not share it in anyway because they do not look true and genuine.’’
He called on those in the media industry to always do a fact check whenever
they see such information, adding that it is the responsibility of the media to
inform the populace.
Mr Donald Martins, a legal practitioner, said following the rumoured wedding
of Buhari on the social media, there is an urgent need for the regulation of
social media to stem the tide of abuse and fake news.
Martins noted that putting machinery in motion to check fake news on social
media would help the country to wade off the binger of fake news.
The legal practitioner stated that unverified and fake news were capable of
causing confusion in the polity and also breed disaffection within the family
circle of the country’s first citizen.
He said that many people fell for the fake news, to the extent that there were
printed wedding invitations online.
Martins queried the motive of those behind the fake news, adding that what
they stood to achieve with such misinformation about the president’s planned
wedding.
He called for the arrest of the purveyors of such fake news, stating that it
would serve as deterrent to others brazing up to feed the nation with fake
news.
He said that those behind the fake story were mischief makers who were bent
on creating smoke where there was no fire.
Ms Frisk Larr, a social commentator, said it was unfair for some people to
spread such fake information without recourse to the feeling of their target.
“The president’s wife is reportedly estranged, a minister is claimed to be
replacing her in the matrimonial household.
“On the reported wedding day that was to hold in Abuja, the lady was spotted
in New York.
“Now, while it may be normal or perhaps legitimate to throw dirt on the
president, on whose head lies the uneasy crown, what has Aisha Buhari done
to merit this smear.
“What has the minister done to be dragged into this mess, do people imagine
the damage they are causing to others, when spreading malicious messages,”
she questioned.
As Goebbels said, if you incessantly repeat a lie, the lie would become a reality;
fake news is an ill wind and should be checked.
