Some fake news last forever’ – Harari
As Chief Press Secretary to Niger State Governor, I formed the habit of checking my phone before going to bed, no matter how early or late. Friday, April 17, 2020, was not different. It was past midnight and I wanted to finally retire to bed. Like media houses, every journalist goes to bed, but never goes to sleep. I checked my phone, first for missed calls, sms and then surfed through WhatsApp, Facebook, twitter and other news platforms for breaking news or updates on COVID-19. And behold, a State House Press release on Femi Adesina’s Facebook page.
I looked at the headline closely —”Chief of Staff to President, Abba Kyari passes on…” The statement signed by Mr. Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, said: “The Presidency regrets to announce the passage of the Chief of Staff to the President , Malam Abba Kyari. The deceased had tested positive to the ravaging COVID-19, and had been receiving treatment. But he died on Friday, April 17, 2020. May God accept his soul. Funeral arrangements will be announced shortly”. Adesina’s statement was posted at 12: 51 am.
In a widely cirulated release which turned out to be his last communication with Nigerians, late Abba Kyari revealed that he was going to Lagos for further medical attention. The last sentence of his letter was ominous — he reminded Nigerians thus: “We are in it together.
Before his death, many Nigerians prayed for his speedy recovery and return to continue with his national assignment. But many others, especially on social media platforms, wished he was dead or that perhaps, they should be allowed to kill him if he wasn’t dying quickly enough. This may sound exaggerated for those who may not have followed the pletora of conjectures on the social media. They fabricated tales about his refusal to be quarantined or his relocation to a foreign country.
Indeed, three weeks ago, when, I was about to start the maiden edition of BUFFER ZONE on radio (WE FM, 106.3) my attention was drawn to a malicious tweet about Abba Kyari’s death and the Federal Government’s alleged attempt to cover up. ‘Look at the tweet, someone sent to me now’, a colleague whispered to me’. ‘It is a lie’. I told my colleague straight away. There was no way Abba Kyari’s death would be hidden from Nigerians.’ I insisted. The ‘tweeter’ even tried to draw an analogy with the late President Musa Yar’Adua whose illness and demise had been shrouded in secrecy.
I thought Malam Kyari’s passing would bring to an end, weeks of speculations, fake news and the malicious and mischievous gloating over him. Alas, I was wrong.
Even in his dead body, he was not left alone. On Saturday, April, 18, 2020, I went to a newsstand in my estate after early morning jogging. As with all newspaper stands in Nigeria, I met people who were experts in everything and have solutions to all of Nigeria’s challenges. They fit into the title of a book, ‘Cult of the Amateurs’.
As expected at the newsstand, I was confronted by a bizarre fiction, not in the papers, but by headline tale-spinners: —Malam Kyari had been dead two weeks ago but government just decided to inform Nigerians the previous day (Friday). Beside myself with such blatant concoctions, I managed to tell them it was not true. And that it was not possible.
Similarly, on Sunday the 19th, a colleague, whom I respect very much, sent a link to a story that I considered even more bizarre about late Kyari — it was a story purppoting that Kyari’s burial was stage managed. Whatever that means!
The story read: “Kyari’s death: He is not the one buried” “The doubts emanating from social media analysis of events and news leading upto his death suggests that the burial of the COS (or supposed COS as the case may be) that took place at Gudu Cementery on Saturday 18th April, 2020 is stage managed and not ABBA Kyari, but the body of an aid to the COS who was also infected and died.”
In this age of social media where fake news, misinformation and disinformation are the order of the day, any thing, just anything is possible. So all manner of stories are circulated on various social media platforms and blogs. Once it starts, it goes viral even when no one knows the author.
The character assassination and smear campaign against Malam Abba Kyari, even while alive was an industry by itself. But his fate is one that has befallen many Nigerian leaders or key players in the corridors of power at all levels — federal, state and local government.
Many players in the corridors of power are always on the ‘ wish dead list’ of some Nigerians. Once in public office, whether elected or appointed occupiers of any powerful office such as Chief of Staff become targets of traducers or political opponents and a close look at this sort subliminal baseness may just reveal nothing but envy and petty jealousy.
The demise of General Sani Abacha, an unpretentious dictator, was met with excitement and rejoicing. His predecessor and former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, has been ‘killed’ many times over by hate mongers and the rumour mills both on and offline.
As spokesperson between 2015 and 2019, one major challenge I managed was fake news on General Babangida’s death.
There is no prize for remembering late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua along this line. In his case, there was sufficient grounds for speculations around his health even before he was sworn-in. And he was ‘killed’ many times long before Allah destined for him to die.
In Nigeria, there are many ways to ‘kill’ and it is becoming a trend. One way some Nigerians kill those they love to hate is through sustained negative campaign around the targeted personality’s reputation using weapons of mass destruction such as Word of Mouth (WOM), social media and traditional platforms to spread false and fake information.
The other way, Nigerians ‘kill’ their leaders is to play god by creating a narrative about a person’s health and counting days that he would live on earth forgetting that it is only Allah who has the power over life and death.
President Muhammadu Buhari has also been ‘killed’ many times even more than late Yar’Adua and Abba Kyari. Slander, innuendos, malicious falsehood are peddled even by suppossedly enlightened people using the free space that social media affords. To date, some Nigerians are shamelessly sustaining the narrative that it is my namesake ‘Jibrin from Sudan’ who is leading Nigeria. When the President went for medical vacation abroad, some ‘dead-wishers’ ‘killed’ him. When he disappointed them by refusing to die, he became a Sudanese.
Kyari was ‘marked for death’, both literally and metaphorically. — He was a target and they killed him metaphorically through character assassination, smear campaigns, fake news, misinformation, disinformation and outright lies.
This is easily achieved in these age of social media, where there are gullible and willing bloggers, sharers, taggers, cloners, and very unfortunately, a significant number of these undesirable elements are media practitioners. They are the ‘Cult of the Amateurs’ that is fuelled by what Professor Yuvah Noah Harari refers to in his book: “21 Lessons of the 21st Century” as ‘age of ignorance…where people, ‘know less than they think.’
While we may admit that one of the factors responsible for fake news and misinformation is trust deficit between government and the governed, it is important as citizens to find out the ‘truth’ about a person, a government rather than joining the bandwagon of haters, ethnic and religious profilers and never see good in any one in government or any government in power at all.
We must, therefore realize that while one of the hallmarks of democracy is criticism, and the right of citizens to hold their government accountable, and to demand good governance at all levels; we must not equate that right as enshrined in the constitution with outright character assassination, defamation, falsehood, and maligning of individuals who serve the public sometimes at the expense of their family and health.
The time honoured advice warns us to speak no evil of the dead. We shall all die and like the late Malam Kyari said, we are in it together.
