Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that media reports making the rounds about his purported meeting with microblogging site twitter in the United States is a classical example of fake news and deliberate misinformation.
The Minister disclosed this on Wednesday in an interview with VON correspondent Solomon Chung in the United States where he is currently on official assignment.
The Minister said he was in the U.S for other serious state functions that have no relationship with the Nigerian government versus the Twitter matter.
He however revealed that it is already public information that microblogging site, Twitter had reached out to the Nigerian government and agreed to meet nearly all the demands out forward by the government and as such, it is Nigeria that is waiting for twitter to fulfil those conditions and not the other way round.
It is against that backdrop that the Minister reiterated the government’s stands and commitment on the issue of regulation of the social media to mitigate the effect of fake news in the society before the menace consumes all.
Speaking further Alhaji Mohammed said it is deliberate mischief and laughable to report in the media that he sneaked out of the country to go and reach out to twitter in the U.S.
Can a minister sneak out of Nigeria from the airport, adhering to all laid down protocols in the airport which is also a public facility? he queried.
“When you report that i sneaked out, probably I went to board at a terminal where nobody is there or I travelled to Republic of Benin to fly out from there.
Rather I travelled at an international airport, presented myself openly and I was checked in at the counter like every other traveller, also passed through the checks of immigration and Customs amongst others.
The whole world knew I was travelling. How can you come and report that I snuck out. That is the height of mischief and un professionalism.
When you talk about fake news and its dangers, we need to take it seriously and I am happy that the entire world is now seeing what we saw more than 3 years ago.”
The Minister said regulating the social media I will help in curbing the dangerous trend of fake news.
“I can assure you that we ill not rest until we regulate the social media. Otherwise, nobody will survive it.
Interestingly and coincidentally enough, there is no schedule interview I have attended so far in the U.S today that the issue of twtter did not come but certainly not having a meeting with Twitter.
“How can you say I will sneak out of Nigeria to come and beg twitter. This people just don’t mean well for Nigeria. It is a kind of fake news that the online platform is known for.”
After placing a ban on microblogging site Twitter by the Nigerian government, the two parties have since been meeting to resolve the matter and it has reached advanced stage with Twitter agreeing to most of the conditions put forward by Nigeria.
The Minister was quoted as saying that the Nigerian government have met with Twitter both physically and in writing with fruitful outcomes so far.
“The engagement has been extremely positive without any acrimony. We have made it clear what we want from Twitter.”
From all submissions, the Nigerian government believes that Twitter has shown a lot of flexibility in the conversation.
Ime N
