Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed
A list of some Nigerian top politicians caught spreading fake news has been released.
Nigeria as a country faces several problems but one that has been a scourge is that of ‘Fake News’.
The Nigerian government through its Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, over the years maintain a stance to severely punish purveyors of fake news and hate speech.
Last October, Mohammed said: “purveyors of fake news and hate speech should not expect to sleep easy”.
However, POLITICS NIGERIA understands that even government officials, including Mr Mohammed, are also guilty of spreading false information also known as ‘fake news’.
To start with the Minister of Information, Mr Mohammed in 2017 said he has never told a lie before but findings by this newspaper reveal that the claim is incorrect.
In this report, we looked at notable public officials and politicians with a past of disseminating false information:
1. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
On Wednesday, 8th April 2020, Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala posted a fake picture on Twitter to salute Rwandan President, Paul Kagame for sharing food items to low-income households in the country to fight Coronavirus.
Meanwhile, a Google reverse image search later revealed that the picture was taken long ago in 2019 and not even in Rwanda.
The image was part of photographs taken of a Gambian Islamic leader who shared food items to Muslim Faithful last year.
Defending her action, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said that a friend sent her the picture claiming it was from Rwanda.
2. Femi Fani-Kayode
In 2018, Former aviation minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode wrote on Twitter that Nigeria was no longer among the top 10 biggest economies in Africa.
According to his Twitter post, Ghana followed by Ethiopia and Cote d’Ivoire had all surpassed Nigeria – even South Africa, according to him, was no longer among the top three biggest African economies.
