“Fake stories trend in Nigeria because there is a big market for them,” —Ebuka Onyekwelu
Trending fake stories have become a major part of the post 2023 General Election in Nigeria. There is hardly any week after the General Election that no fake story has trended. These fake stories, which often originate from Twitter and WhatsApp, are immediately pounced on and devoured. The stories are believed without questions or elementary due diligence and sworn-on, by people, only for them to later be thoroughly unveiled as false in entirety. Yet, only for the peddlers to move on without an apology and repeat the same routine on the next round of fake news and then the next one and the cycle continues.
This week alone, no fewer than three fake news have trended. Again, originating from Twitter and WhatsApp, then spreading like wildfire that they immediately become the ‘major news’ that most users of the internet in Nigeria are forced to deal with. The false story of the resignation of Justice Ugo, accompanied with a funny narrative of an altercation with the federal government was heating rooftops even before midday, only two days ago. On the same day, the fake story of a certain concealed meeting between all judges involved with the Tribunal and the former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike in Spain or so, also trended. There is also a story that claimed that someone intercepted a certain clandestine telephone conversation in relation to the ongoing Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. When will these stories stop coming and when will their enablers stop patronizing them?
In one of the WhatsApp groups I belong, someone shared the story of Justice Ugo’s resignation and I simply responded ‘fake news’. Then, I got two responses. The first person wanted to know if I had confirmed from Justice Ugo that the news was fake, although he did not say if he had confirmed from anywhere that the news was true. The next person simply said that ‘anything is possible in Nigeria’. But that is not actually the case. The unfortunate reality is that Nigerians are willing to believe anything and that is why fake news has continued to thrive. So, the problem is not that anything is possible in Nigeria, but that Nigerians are unwilling to interrogate these stories though they are armed with the internet and can easily verify and debunk these fake stories, instead, they run with them. Even beyond that, the new trend in which fake news are repeatedly elevated to major discourses has significantly exposed the quality of a considerable percentage of Nigerian citizens dominating or even driving public discourse particularly online. It is actually disturbing that anyone can believe the story of Justice Ugo’s resignation, but again, that could only happen when people are desperately looking for sensational stories that will trigger them or offer some false sense of hope, when they should be looking for the truth.
There are those who are willing to believe them without any form of questioning
It does appear that carriers of these fake stories are mostly motivated by the singular aim of ‘getting back’ at the government, or just creating sensation for whatever reason. This has further exposed Nigeria’s fault lines beyond the traditional divisions along ethnic, religious or political lines, to include inability to think independently. Innocent individuals, government institutions are carefully targeted in a calculated defacement to bring their reputation into question for no reason. There is little doubt that those who originate and distribute these fake stories are not interested in the truth, whatever it may be. They only haul aspersions on their target with absolutely no reason at all or at best, based on unprovable assumptions. Fortunately for them, there are those who are willing to believe them without any form of questioning, no matter the absurdity of their story.
Just a few days ago, I read one ridiculous, totally unfounded story of how Prof. Chris Ulasi, an accomplished professor of communications in the United States of America, had met with Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo state, again, in connection to the just concluded presidential election. At first, I was livid and wondered when all these obvious insanity would come to an end. Then, when I spoke to Prof. Chris Ulasi that day, I felt pity for the consumers of these fake stories. Prof. Ulasi told me that the last time he saw or spoke with Hope Uzodimma was over a decade ago, precisely around 2012! So it is not as if they saw anywhere or spoke recently on anything whatsoever. Prof. Chris Ulasi is in Houston Texas, currently busy with the Igbofest event in the US, while Hope Uzodimma is in Nigeria, busy with his reelection politics.
These fake stories trend in Nigeria because there is a big market for them and the worst is that those who believe and share them think they are doing some form of patriotic duty, thereby signaling that the emergence of a curious, conscientious, and conscious nucleus of Nigerians, who will lead a real charge for the progress of their country, is a long and rigorous walk.
He is a Technical Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano’s Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, whoonce was a Special Adviser to a former Deputy Speaker of Anambra State House of Assembly. Ebuka is a second class upper division graduate of Political Science from University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria and holds a Masters Degree in Political Science with specialization in Government and Development Studies, from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Nigeria
