The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has frowned at the Nigerian Media for reporting a recent article by the United Kingdom’s, UK, The Economist Magazine, condemning the ongoing and incessant insecurity in Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch, .
He spoke during a Press Conference, in Abuja, on Thursday, while reacting to the article titled: ‘Insurgency, Secessionism and Banditry threaten Nigeria’.
While answering questions from Journalists on the banditry in the North-West, where bandits now impose levies on communities, the Information Minister stated:
“Do you know how many places in this country where area boys collect taxes? And there is no terrorism or banditry there. I do not want to mention names.
“In many of our cities, they carve out their own territory. So, it is not indicative of the bandits have taken over.
“No. I know many areas in Nigeria, both in the South and the North, where these kinds of things happen. So, it is not the same thing.”
Speaking further, he said that The Economist Intelligence Unit, which is a sister organisation of The Economist Magazine, had predicted in 2019, that the Peoples Democratic Party’s, PDP, Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, would win the election, but the prediction turned out to be false.
“President Muhammadu Buhari won re-election by over three million votes. So, The Economist and other arms of the group are not infallible.
“The Nigerian Media does itself a great disservice by turning itself into an echo chamber of the foreign Media. When The Economist reported its patently-wrong and badly-researched story, it was immediately amplified by the local Media, without even interrogating its content? This is totally unconscionable!
“Again, at a time that Boko Haram and ISWAP are taking on each other in a mutually-destructive lockstep, and at a time that the terrorists are surrendering in droves as a result of heavy pounding by the Military, it is wrong to say that Jihadists are carving out a Caliphate in the North-East, as The Economist reported.
“In any case, why would the Nigerian Media become an echo chamber for a foreign newspaper that denigrates the Nigerian Military, and makes light of the sacrifices of our valiant troops? Would the British or American Press regurgitate a report in the Nigerian Press denigrating their militaries?”
