The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has warned that due to the rampant circulation of fake news in Nigeria, the country is sitting on a time bomb.

He spoke in Abuja on Tuesday when he appeared for 2021 budget defence before the House of Representatives Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values.

“We are sitting on a time bomb on this issue of fake news. Unfortunately, we have no national policy on social media and we need one.

“When we went to China, we could not get google, Facebook and Instagram. You could not even use your email in China because they made sure it is censored and well regulated.

“In June this year, there was a riot in Ethiopia when a popular musician was killed. What the government did was to shut down the social media for two days to bring that riot under control bearing in mind that Ethiopia hosts the AU and in office for Africa.

“But the truth is that the only way to do it was to shut down the social media.

“We need technology and resources to dominate our social media. We need a social media policy to determine what can be seen and what cannot be seen,” he said.

He said the biggest challenge facing the country was fake news and misinformation.

He said the government identified this in 2017 and decided to launch a national campaign against fake news.

He, however, stressed that the government was not shutting down the social media space in the country.

“The social media has come to stay”, but to have a social media policy that regulate the social media and check fake news and misinformation.

“We said then that the next war will be fought without a shot being fired, but with the use of fake news. We didn’t stop there, we went on tour of all media houses to solicit their support in the fight against fake news. We launched the campaign to regulate social media which was bitterly contested by the stakeholders.

The minister said the #ENDSARS “war” was fought on social media.

“They mobilised using the social media. The war today revolves around two things: smart phone and data, and these young men don’t even watch television or listen to radio or read newspapers.

“You’ll be shocked that when you start arguing with your children, they’ll be quoting the social media. So, we need a social media policy in Nigeria and we need to empower the various agencies and we need technology to be able to regulate the social media” he said.

The chairman of the committee, Odebunmi Olusegun, urged the Federal Government to look for technology to be used in regulating the social media.

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.