Between Lai Mohammed And Nigerian Media, Who Is The Echo Chamber Of Foreign Media?

 The minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has accused the Nigerian media of being the echo chamber of foreign media organizations when they report anything on Nigeria, accusing the media practitioners in Nigeria of regurgitating whatever was published about Nigeria by the foreign media.

Lai Mohammed’s anger was the Nigerian media’s report of the UK-based The Economist, damning editorial on the administration, where the highly-rated magazine exposed the heist allegedly going on in the country despite the chest-thumping war against corruption in Nigeria. The report by The Economist titled, “The Crime Scene at the heart of Africa,” has invariably given the administration sleepiness night going by the flurry of activities by Nigerian government officials to debunk the story.

Not content with the minister of Information handling the matter the government had to also dispatch the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola to write The Economist describing the characterization of Nigeria by the London-based magazine as unfair.

It reminds one of the 100 Nazi physicists who gathered to disprove the Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein in Germany.

The Nazis enlisted 100 physicists, including Nobel laureates Philipp Lenard and Johannes Stark, to denounce Einstein. "One Hundred Authors Against Einstein" was published in 1931. When asked to comment on this denunciation of the Theory of Relativity by so many scientists, Einstein replied, “to defeat relativity one did not need the word of 100 scientists, JUST ONE FACT.” Einstein was eventually proved right! That is by the way.

Back to the Nigerian media being the echo chamber of foreign media organizations and I am about to show you the hypocrisy of Lai Mohammed and the administration. Did you remember a certain United States professor who wrote the opinion in the Washington Times calling for the proscribed indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) to be declared a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Department of State?

The piece written by the Executive Director of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore, Ivan Sascha Sheehan, expressed displeasure that, “the violent secessionist group in question – the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – is yet to be designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) by the US Department of State.

“This is despite repeated pleas to do so by longstanding U.S. ally, Nigeria, where IPOB is based and carries out its murderous activities. It is difficult to explain how U.S. interests are served by inaction and complacency on IPOB. The listing costs nothing. But the designation would have significant implications for the group’s continuance.”

Lai Mohammed cannot pretend that he was not aware that it was the Federal Government of Nigeria that circulated the above opinion article on IPOB to the Nigerian media, and the media used it lavishly the way Lai and co. wanted it. At that time, the Nigerian media was not the echo chamber of the Washington Times ( a foreign media organization).

The minister went ahead in his press conference to say that The Economist has never gotten anything correct on Nigeria citing their prediction that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was going to win the 2019 presidential election, which President Muhammadu Buhari ‘won’ with 3million votes. Lai was being economic with the truth.

This is because media reports showed that The Economist earlier predicted that Buhari would win the 2019 presidential election and even endorsed Buhari’s candidacy, which drew the anger of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of PDP. This was how the Vanguard titled the report in 2018, “Atiku Knocks The Economist, says endorsement of Buhari scandalous.” See the link: https://www.vanguardngr.com/.../atiku-knocks-the.../

The prediction of The Economist that Buhari would win and their endorsement of Buhari was made in 2018, however, as the election drew closer The Economist apparently based on new information changed its mind about the prospect of Buhari winning and by 2019 February, projected that Atiku was going to win. This was how the Sun reported it, “The Economist Predicts Atiku To Win Presidential Election.” See link: https://www.sunnewsonline.com/the-economist-predicts.../

The Economist earlier predict accurately that General Muhammadu Buhari of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) was going to win the 2015 presidential election and even endorsed Buhari’s candidacy which was widely reported by the Nigerian media and at that time the APC leaders wore the endorsement like an Olympic gold medal. At the time the media was not accused of being an echo chamber of foreign media organizations.

There are many who can bet their bottom dollar that if The Economist had written that President Muhammadu Buhari is the best thing to have happened to Nigeria since sliced bread, Lai Mohammed or his office would have circulated it to all media houses to be used prominently.

This country is in dire strait and needs truth-bearers to bring her out of the woods. And the country’s leaders cannot get the truth by making the media their scapegoat in order to cover their incompetence!