The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday asked the Association of the Information, National Guidance, Ethics and Values Committee of the House of Representatives to monitor the data for fake news, warning that Nigeria can simply “be seated in a gunpowder barrel “if not treated through legislation. “
The minister responded to questions from lawmakers when he gave the impression to the committee of protecting the proposed budget by 2021.
He warned that the next war that will take place in the country and around the world, can be provoked by incorrect information on social media.
According to the minister, “the biggest challenge facing the country was the factor in fake news and misinformation, adding that the government has known since 2017 and launching a national crusade against fake news. “
The minister explained that the government will not close the social media area in the country because “social media has arrived to stay,” but it must still have a social media policy that regulates social media and check for fake news and misinformation. “
He is not happy that “the biggest challenge Facing Nigeria is fake news and mis data. On this basis, we rely on a full assembly of the National Information Council on this subject, after which we presented a national crusade against false data in July 2018.
“We said then that the next war would be fought without firing a single shot, but with the use of fake news. We didn’t stop him there. We toured every means to ask for their in the fight opposed to fake news. presented the social media regulation campaign, which has been highly controversial among stakeholders.
“We keep saying that if we don’t do social media, it will destroy us. Social media and fake news will not destroy Nigeria. In 2017, there was a fake video of the farmers’ and farmers’ crisis. It was a video of what happened in Tanzania and was played in Nigeria as if it were true. In 2017, a popular artist in Nigeria gave a false alarm that academics at the Faculty of Education, Gidan Ways, in Kaduna state, had been killed.
“There was almost retaliation for him to realize that this is not true. In 2017, we learned that some of the videos posted are things that have happened in other parts of the world. When there is a challenge between South Africa and Nigeria, they released videos of what had happened in India and Tanzania to recommend that Nigerians be roasted alive, resulting in reprisals in grocery shopping.
“At times, the government continued to draw attention to the fact that it was a threat. Unfortunately, this is not only happening at Nigeria. La Ohaio University conducted studies and discovered that Hillary Clinton had lost the presidential election to Trump due to false news promoted through Russia that had worked on three issues. First, Trump had been backed up through the Pope. The moment when she was secretary of state, she legalized the sale of weapons and also that she was a very older person. These three things have a lot of influence on the votes.
“We’re sitting on a time bomb about this fake news factor. Unfortunately, we don’t have a national social media policy and we love it. When we went to China, we couldn’t get Google, Facebook and Instagram. don’t even use your email in China because they’ve made sure it’s censored and that we’re going to do it.
“In June of this year, there was an insurrection in Ethiopia when a popular musician was killed. What the government has done is cut off social media for two days to this insurrection. Please note that Ethiopia is the au’s home and in place of work for Africa. But the fact is, the only way to do that was to shut down social media.
“We want technologies and resources to dominate our social networks. We want a social media policy for what you can tell and what you can’t tell.
“The recent #ENDSARS was fought on social media. They mobilized social media. Today’s war revolves around two things. The smartphone and the knowledge and those young people don’t even watch TV, they don’t pay attention to the radio or read newspapers.
“You’ll be surprised that when you start arguing with your kids, they’re quoting social media. That’s why we want a social media policy in Nigeria and we want to empower other agencies and we want the generation to be able to use social media. “
However, although caution opposed the closure of the social media area in the country, the Honourable Oghene said it was wrong to look at the negative sides of social media at all times without mentioning the plus side.
He said that “speaking of the recent looting of the elements of Covid-19, in some places they will plunder, but no one will know. The passing government may not know it, and the police may not know it. But thanks to social media, other people will post when they pass and the passing government can pass and save lives.
“There was a time when some kids were investigating and because of social media, this data came out and the stage stopped. If there’s no social media, it won’t happen.
“I need to appeal to the will to end social media, we will have not to do too much because it will hurt us. China is not a smart example because it is a communist country. Nigeria has been free, we are a democratic”. country.
“Let’s take a look at other democracies and see what they’ve done on their social media. This generation is already there. It doesn’t happen to pass. We have enough legislation in our law books to deal with social media. If others publish things that are not correct, they can be brought to justice. If the legislation is not sufficient, submit an invoice and the National Assembly will approve it. If social media is cut off, democracy will be seriously hampered. “
The chairman of the committee, Representative Odebunmi Olusegun (APC-Oyo), said that the Nigerian government of passage deserves to pass in search of the necessary generation to social media in the country and be able to paint with what is already available in cyberspace.
He said: “I don’t need the media to misquot us. Social media is here to stay. What the government deserves to be doing is looking for a generation to paint with what’s in space. We’re not asking the government to prevent social media. The most important thing is that the government is looking to locate the generation so that you too can paint in space ».
Odebunmi praised the ministry for proactively disseminating data to Nigerians in the fight opposing COVID-19, adding that the ministry and its oversight departments and agencies helped the country flatten the pandemic curve.
He said: “Let me first thank the Ministry of Information and its agencies for their proactive technique for disseminating data on the COVID-19 pandemic. I will have to say that the technique has helped Nigeria to stem the tide and smooth the spread in particular. . curve.
However, he deplored the department’s low monetary allocation, a scenario that he said hindered the department’s performance, stating that “in fact, the budget of data ministries in states like Akwa-lbom and Rivers States is much more than a federal data department proposes, despite the main day-to-day work attributed to it. “
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