Pantami calls for societal reorientation to curb fake news in Nigeria

Nigerian Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ibrahim Pantami has called for societal re-orientation to sensitize the people against disinformation and fake news in the country.

Pantami made the call at the Ministerial Session of the UNESCO Global Media and Information Literacy Week in Abuja on Tuesday.

The Minister who raised alarm that the country is losing its value by the day over the scourge of disinformation and fake news.

Adding that the way and manner people behaved and communicated offline should be reflected in the way they behaved and communicated online.

Pantami, speaking on the topic, “National Media and Information Literacy Frameworks, Sustaining Beyond Disinformation”, expressed worries about how media released unverified negative information about the country.

He emphasized that the trend of disinformation was affecting the global perception of the country negatively and curtailing investment and growth.

The Minister said with new media, everyone has become a journalist while people sit at the comfort of their homes and concoct whatever they wish, without editorial review or verification and dish it out for public consumption.

Pantami said: “it was unfortunate that people lived in a world where negative news spread like wildfire and being consumed voraciously”.

He referred to the latest development where the United States Embassy in Nigeria issued a security alert over the risk of terror attacks in Nigeria, especially the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The Minister who was not surprised, said without verification or considering the negative effects of such alert, both traditional and online media circulated the information freely.

“Most of the schools yesterday were shut down but we are grateful to the Almighty God, nothing happened.

This type of unverified information has its dire implication on the economic development of our country as well as its perception globally,” he said.

Pantami said the developed countries that were issuing the unverified security alerts had their own challenge of security, including school shootings but they managed it effectively.

He called on journalists to wake up to their responsibilities and understand that they practiced a noble profession that operated with fairness and objectivity.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah, also made presentation at the event while the UK Minister of Tech and Digital Economy, Damian Collins participated virtually.