Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has urged Nigerians in the diaspora not to believe everything they read on the social media about happenings in the country, saying “most of what emanates from the social media is fake news”.
Addressing the staff of the Nigerian Embassy to the United States (U.S.) in
Washington DC, on Friday, the Minister said they should rely on credible sources for news from home.
He advised them to download the FGN-iAPP on their mobile devices to have access to authentic Nigerian news.
Mohammed said the Federal Government recently launched the National Campaign Against Fake News to stem the spread of
false and misleading information, which is capable of threatening the peace and security of the country.
The Minister, who is in the U.S. to interact with past and current
senior American government officials and stakeholders in the U.S. policy on
Africa, under the auspices of the think tank Atlantic Council, said the picture being painted in some circles of an ethno-religious crisis in Nigeria is far from the truth.
”Despite such crises as the farmers-herders clashes and communal
conflicts, Nigerians – for the most part – are living together
harmoniously. Nigeria is not at war,” he said.
Mohammed said the tempo of the killings arising from the
farmers-herders crisis is going down, and that the government is
committed to ending the incessant clashes once and for all.
Earlier, the Nigerian Ambassador to the U.S., Ambassador Sylvanus
Nsofor, had formally welcomed the Minister to the Embassy.
