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Tag: Alhaji Lai Mohammed

  • Going To Washington To Say I Committed Treason Is The Height Of Rascality – Obi Knocks Lai Mohammed

    Going To Washington To Say I Committed Treason Is The Height Of Rascality – Obi Knocks Lai Mohammed

    Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has described the allegation of treason against him by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed as the height of rascality.

    Recall that the Minister had made the allegation during engagements with journalists in Washington DC in the United States of America recently.

    Mohammed accused Obi of inciting people to violence over the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, saying it was treasonable.

    “Obi and his Vice, Datti-Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.

    “This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.

    “A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins election,” he said.

    Speaking on Arise TV on Monday, Obi condemned the allegation, even as he berated the federal government over the resources expended towards the media rounds where Mohammed made the claim.

    “That is the height of rascality. It was even announced in Washington. I committed a treasonable offence and I’m in Onitsha, and my minister went to announce it in Washington. This is the waste in governance we are talking about and people don’t want to understand.

    “The amount it cost Nigeria for him to go and announce that in Washington can build a block of six classrooms in a primary school. I’m sure if you go to his village there are so many places where children don’t even have desk or classrooms to go to school.

    “Instead of using that money for this purpose, he went to Washington to announce treason against someone in Onitsha. He doesn’t need to do that. From there he went to London, announcing the same thing when I’m in Nigeria. He should have come to see me or invited me and tell me my offense,” Obi told show host, Charles Aniagolu.

  • Nigerian Media Undermining its Watchdog Role – Lai Mohammed

    Nigerian Media Undermining its Watchdog Role – Lai Mohammed

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the Nigerian media is undermining its watchdog role by engaging in some activities preventing it from holding power to account.

    The Minister stated this on Tuesday in Abuja at an interactive session of the 27th Nigerian Economic Summit with the topic, “The Fourth Estate – Holding Power Accountable’’.

    “Today, it is not uncommon to have media organizations hold annual award ceremonies. In most cases, their awardees are top officials of the same government they are supposed to hold accountable.

    “Such awards include Governor or Governors of the Year; Minister or Ministers of the Year; Politician or Politicians of the Year. Let’s even forget the fact that the criteria for giving such awards are dubious, at best.

    “Let’s forget that some of these awardees support the awarding organizations in one form or the other, especially during the awards.

    “To what extent can such media organizations hold their awardees, most of them top officials of government at all levels, accountable?

    “Is this not antithetical to the watchdog role prescribed for the press in the Constitution?’’.

    The Minister also identified the engagement of partisan media men to anchor sensitive programmes as another factor preventing the fourth estate to hold power to account.

    “For example, there is a national television station here in this country that has, as one of its anchors, a partisan, a known opposition party man.

    “Yes, the said anchor is also a journalist. But what kind of objectivity can we expect from such an Anchor? No matter how professional he seeks to be, his partisanship will always be a blur.

    “Can such Anchor or his medium be trusted to objectively hold power accountable?’’ he queried.

  • #EndSARS: TV stations paid fines over fake news – FG

    #EndSARS: TV stations paid fines over fake news – FG

    The Federal Government says the sanctions imposed on some broadcast media stations in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests were justified and that the affected stations already paid their fines.

    Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this on Thursday in Abuja at a media briefing on the #EndSARS protest and its aftermaths.

    The minister said that two of stations paid their fines in full, while the third paid a part of the fine, with an appeal for time to pay the balance.

    Mohammed stressed that the fines imposed on the stations by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) were not only justified, but that the NBC was indeed lenient.

    “In the aftermath of the EndSARS crisis, the NBC fined three broadcast stations for using unverified and dangerous information from the social media.

    “Commentators, many of whom didn’t even know why the NBC imposed the fine, rushed to allege an attempt to stifle free speech.

    “Unknown to them, the stations themselves knew that they breached the Broadcast Code.

    “It is sad to see the traditional media jettisoning the age-long gate-keeping process and instead rushing to rely on the free-wheeling social media, devoid of any gatekeeping, for news,’’ he said.

    The minister also said it was imperative for the traditional media to authenticate information from the social media or from any source, for that matter, before publishing or broadcasting same.

    He condemned the emerging trend in which traditional media freely used materials from social media sources without taking the pains to verify their authenticity.

    “This is a dangerous trend that must be curbed, in the interest of media practitioners themselves, the profession and indeed the country,’’ he said.

    Mohammed said if the NBC had wielded the big stick during the protest, some broadcast media organisations would have faced more severe sanctions than mere fines.

    “Recall that an otherwise reputable broadcast media organisation had carried a fake report that the Ecumenical Centre in Abuja was on fire during the violence that followed the protest.

    “Though the organisation in question later retracted the story, the kind of reprisal attack this could have sparked is better imagined.

    “Also, another reputable broadcast media organisation featured a report that identified a maintenance worker atop a bank building overlooking the Lekki tollgate in Lagos as a sniper, leading to attacks that destroyed many of the bank’s branches.

    “The organisations have not even been sanctioned for these terrible disinformation, yet rabble-rousers have latched on to the fines to make all sorts of baseless allegations,’’ he said

    The NBC fined Channels Television, AIT and Arise TV N3 million each on Oct. 26 over their unprofessional coverage of the #EndSARS protest and the crises that followed it.

    Acting Director-General of NBC, Prof Armstrong Idachaba, announced the sanctions at a news conference in Abuja.