That Lai’s charge on social media news
Social media is the real market of ideas. People buy and sell here 24/7 and I’m not talking about the impact of Amazon – the usurper of retail business. Just like any market, everyone approaches social media with their wares some of which are good; some are substandard while others are outright lemon. In Trumpspeak, […]
Social media is the real market of ideas. People buy and sell here 24/7 and I’m not talking about the impact of Amazon – the usurper of retail business. Just like any market, everyone approaches social media with their wares some of which are good; some are substandard while others are outright lemon. In Trumpspeak, anything that fails his warped sense of approval is simply – fake news.
African ruiners don’t just rant about fake news. Over the week, Lai Mohammed who has no known social media handle urged the diaspora Naija not to source their news from fake news sources. One of the greatest threats to official lies and propaganda is the social media. Trust official sources at your peril.
In the past, you needed the BBC and other behemoths to get anything close to the truth. Today, just sieving through the labyrinth of news sources tells you that the truth is buried somewhere between the tissue of lies from official sources and what officialdom wants to classify as fake news. Lai would want us to know that it’s not official until it carries the stamp of controlled media. If you wait on those censored channels, you’ll be somewhere between the gates of heaven and hell before you knew what hit you. They mostly choose silence rather than provide information because in a system, in which the ruling party promises to purge its evil service of the influence of the party it replaced, keeping your job and your conscience added with professionalism is a dangerous balancing act.
Even Alexander Graham Bell could not have envisaged the revolution of the mobile phone. This omnibus gadget has transformed life; making those who did not experience its invention feel they merely skirted the stratosphere of existence. This omnibus office enables us to do all things, legal and illegal at the touch of buttons. It literally places the world in our hands. It has ruined as many lives and a reputation as it has changed.
Events of the past couple of weeks have been instructive. Yoweri Museveni, the despotic ruiner in Uganda got tired of his gaff being blown on social media that he did something about it – he introduced a tax on its use. It was one step above the old ban placed in Ethiopia. Parliament endorsed this, helping Museveni break the jinx of Obote and Idi Amin. He defended his position until he was lately forced to back down.
John Magufuli, the Tanzanian revolutionary cashed in on the idea. He does not brook opposition. Naija is lucky. A coalition of civil society activism killed the bill before it could be passed. But you can’t outfox an old fox, and lately the military and the Daura State Security; DSS confessed they’ll be ‘monitoring’ our social media handles.
Africa is not an island on this. Last week, the big BBC got a knock on the head for its coverage of an event that would count as – breaking news- in most Naija news outlets. It was a police raid on a famous singer under investigation. In a judgment very likely to affect the way we all cover news, Mr. Justice Mann ruled that unveiling the identity of a person under police investigation before being charged infringed on their privacy in a “serious” and “sensationalist” way. The man at the center of it all was singer Cliff Richard whose home was raided but who was never charged.
In Naija, the police parade you and condemn you until the courts prove otherwise. They used to have a bogus television programme called Crime Fighters to laud their supposed exploits. Yet a corruption case climbs all the ladder of justice and falls flat if the accused is rich enough to hire an array of SANs.
To those of us forced to report and comment on events, it is easy to be suckered into partisanship. But give it to Naija, where news manipulation is as old as Goebbels’ script. The Buhari Media Organization has been doing a good job of pushing the phantom exploits of their client. Better job than the resume of Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu and Lai combined. If you follow their channel of news, you’ll ask the ruining party to share the N242.4 slated for waste on polls to be shared along with the Abacha loot.
This economy supposedly managed by someone with alleged forged NYSC exemption papers, is better than it has ever been in thirty years. We were all suffering sleeping sickness while these feats were accomplished. Our foreign reserves are about to make Abacha squirm in his grave.
Elections are in the wings, and a tweet with the hashtag #TooBlessed makes interesting reading. It was poignant as it was succinct. Here goes: “In 2011, it cost looters N83 billion to conduct elections. In 2015, it cost the looters N93 billion to conduct elections. In 2019, it’s going to cost the Integrity/Corruption crusaders N242.4 billion. Almost triple of (sic); the previous amount. But we are fighting Corruption. Clowns.”
Imagine how the BMO would react to all these in the coming months. They won’t remind #TooBlessed and his supporters what the exchange rate was in 2011 and 2015. They’ll blame it all on the uncontrolled looting under the PDP. Scandal after scandal, the deodorant of bad governance is getting to that level where fresh air is eternally fouled. The lies, deceit and direct subterfuge is such that this shitstem would deceive ‘the elect’ if election days were not so near. They have the capacity to hoodwink people into seeing no need to change the change. Whatever you do, keep sieving the chaff from the grains, for your conscience’s sake.