Who’s the pioneer of fake news in modern-day Nigeria? by Ademola Adeoye

I agree –from top to bottom that fake news can cause what is called—national conflagration, but it is beyond Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the APC as a whole to complain and whine about fake news. They strategically and excellently sowed the seed of fake news and now that the harvest is coming to them in unstinted and bountiful fold, instead of complaining, the APC and Alhaji Lai Mohammed are supposed to be rejoicing. In fact, the APC as a political party rode to power on the back of fake news!


Alhaji Lai said that GEJ’s sole candidature was a mockery of democracy. Also, he said the PDP did lack internal democracy for choosing one man to represent them as Goliath was chosen to represent the Philistines. He went ahead to say that the fellows in the PDP have never heard of the saying that those who must come to equity must come with clean hands. He also said that for endorsing the sole candidacy of His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan that the PDP have turned into a fiefdom—being controlled by one and only one person.

Today, the definition of fake news has changed. When politicians are seeking power, they present to be for the truth and pretend to be on the side of the common man, but immediately they get to power, they change the goal post in the middle of the game. At the moment, as far as Alhaji Lai Mohammed is concerned, what was fake news in those days is not fake news today. Today, what the PDP calls the truth will become fake news when they too get to power tomorrow. Politicians are just playing Nigerians!

Back to the issue I am addressing, after endorsing the sole candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari, if we say that the hands of everyone in the APC are dirty, Alhaji Lai would say that it is fake news that it is capable of destroying the whole nation. Also, if we say that the APC is a fiefdom being controlled by Buhari, they would say that it is fake news and that we detest Nigeria. Everything the APC condemned PDP for, the APC have done worse things!

Taking this issue a little further, Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s comments on the “Chibok” saga were enough to set the whole nation on fire. He went to further say that the Administration of Jonathan knew more about the Boko Haram insurgency than it did admit and that the Administration was exploiting the insurgency for the President’s re-election. He also said that the government of GEJ was manipulating the release of Chibok girls! Was that not strong enough to set the whole nation against President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan? Today, if we speak as Alhaji Lai Mohammed spoke when he was hungry for power, they would say it is hate speech, but they know that the APC and Alhaji Lai Mohammed pioneered it.

During the reign of GEJ, the APC condemned the politicization of the plight of the Chibok girls, arguing that since “the incompetence of the Jonathan Administration led to the abduction of the girls in the first instance that it must not seek to make political capital out of their release.” Today, when you say that it was the incompetence of Buhari Administration that led to the abduction of Dapchi girls, Alhaji Lai and the APC would scream foul! Aren’t we funny as a people? The most difficult thing to define in Nigeria is hate speech because what was right then can never be wrong now.

Quoting Professor Wole Soyinka, Alhaji Lai Mohammed also said that only morons and sycophants could be engaging in celebratory rallies when soldiers were dying on the Boko Haram battlefront and when citizens were daily being dispatched to their graves by insurgents…What is the difference between “TAN” that the APC condemned through his spokesman and the Buhari Campaign Organization? Now, if we say that only moron and sycophants are engaging in celebratory rallies—because all Alhaji Lai condemned the PDP for are still with us today. In fact, we are losing more soldiers today than we did lose in the day of the PDP and GEJ!

Instead of engaging in issues-based campaigns, the APC through Alhaji Lai did use the crucial issue of insurgency to score cheap political points. Now that the chicken has come home to roost, they are back crying and wailing. The most terrible thing I have seen in the last ten (10) years in our polity is politicians using the tears of the common man to score cheap political points, while keeping their own families far away from danger. Instead of both the PDP and APC to come together, so we can solve the problem of insurgency, they are using the death of our true heroes—soldiers—to score cheap political points. When late Osama Bin Ladin did hit America some years back, all their political parties came together. The Republicans were not blaming the Democrats. The fad is not the same in Nigeria and it is a big shame.

For the umpteenth time, while I am vehemently against the use of fake news to score cheap political points, I need to let you know that I am also heavily against two-facedness and hypocrisy. The APC and Alhaji Lai cannot define to us what fake news is all about, because it once worked for them when they were in dire need of political-power that is so transient.