In what is becoming a trademark of the Buhari-led administration, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu has released the latest newsletter of alternative facts from the government coffers. On Sunday 19th February, the media aide announced to a group of students that Nigeria has now become the second largest producer of rice in the world.
The world all over is awake to the spread of fake news over the internet. The potency of fake news came to limelight in the weeks after the emergence of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States. He had reportedly been helped to amass votes by series of fake news published on Facebook. The US of A is however not the sole example of how fake news can impact events.
In far away India, Whatsapp has become known as the number one source of fake news. In November 2016, the platform was used in spreading a rumour of a certain implantation of GPS in the new Indian currency among many other claims which have since been denied by the government. However, rather than have the populace fabricate news, the government of Nigeria has established itself as a source of fake news, propaganda and outright lies.
Before the latest round, the presidency had in November 2016, through the same office of Mallam Garba Shehu stated that Nigeria had grains so much it would feed the whole nation and sufficient enough for exportation at a time Nigeria was being warned of food scarcity. He added that the much talked about famine that could hit some parts of the country in 2017 was due to the careless exportations of our grain. In order words, we are starving because we export too much grain. A simple fact-check, however, showed that Mr Garba’s statement is nothing but a figment of his own imagination, and that it was not consistent with the reality in Nigeria.
Just about three months after the above fictitious statement was made, the aide has now come out to release another round of “alternative facts”. In the latest episode, Shehu said he heard on CNN that Nigeria is the second largest producer of rice in the world.
The closest semblance to truth in Garba Shehu’s statement is that Nigeria is the second largest importer of rice in Subsaharan Africa. The ranking was released by the United States Department of Agriculture. A statement from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in December 2016 puts Nigeria as the largest importer of rice in the world. So what branch of CNN provided Mr Shehu his data?
As at September 2016, according to worldatlas.com, Nigeria was nowhere near the top ten leading producers of rice in the world. How Nigeria magically moved from nowhere to the second position remains a farce that only Garba Shehu believes. It is not as that would not be a good thing if Nigeria were to be the second largest producer of rice in the world, but the truth as of now is that Nigeria is not the second largest producer of rice in the world.
While these flase statements might not be aimed at inciting violence like Audu’s tweets were interpreted to be, these releases by the government are aimed at creating a false reality for the people, a deliberate attempt to mislead over 180 million people. That is fake news, propaganda and outright lies.
