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By Omoniyi Salaudeen
FAKE news hurts. Outrightly cruel. It assaults
the sensibility of the victim, leaving a long last-
ing effect on the psychology of the individuals
concerned.
Former Head of State, General Yakubu Go- won (rtd), Monday, had his own share of the
bad taste of a huge rumour mill Nigeria has
become. For no known reason, some perni- cious minds just decided to send shock waves
into the public through social media, spreading
false news of his purported death.
At his age, 89, death should not ordinarily
be a thing of fear. Who will not die anyway?
Death is the only thing that is certain in life.
No mortal is immune from it. It doesn’t mat- ter at what age; the inevitable will come when
it will come. That is why in African mythol- ogy, false announcement of death is regarded
as sacrilege.
Regrettably, with the advent of social media,
that culture of restraint and decorum has been
completely eroded. No more compassion for
other fellow humans. To be sure, Nigeria has
a law regulating the use of social media. Pre- cisely, Section 59 of the Criminal Code prohib- its the publication of false news with intent to
cause fear and alarm to the public.
The Federal Government in furtherance of
its desire to ensure adequate scrutiny of news
items being churned out by online platforms
has also taken a step further to unveil a bill
aimed at regulating digital platforms. The pro- posed legislation, which has been submitted to
the National Assembly, seeks to repeal and re-
enact the National Broadcasting Commission
(NBC) Act, CAP L11, Laws of the Federation
of Nigeria 2004.
But criticism, bordering on fears of censor- ship and an authoritarian crackdown on dissent
opinion, has made some public affairs com- mentators and media practitioners to view the
motive with suspect. The proposed legislation
if passed into law will hit Internet users with
steep fines or jail term for spreading what au- thorities decide is fake news.
Again, under what is known as the social
media bill, which the Senate had also ad- vanced, police could arrest people whose posts
are thought to threaten national security, sway
elections or “diminish public confidence” in
the government, according to the draft text.
Authorities could also cut the Internet access of
those that violate the regulation.
That is where suspicion lies. At the same
time, not a few people have realised the need
for the government to regulate social media
content for the good of all. Proponents of the
legislation said the measure would help to pro- tect innocent Nigerians from lies that sow un- rest at a time when countries across the globe
are grappling with the menace of misinforma- tion. On the other hand, Nigerian celebrities,
tech activists and civil organisations argued
that such a law could muzzle free speech. It
is neither here nor there. Freedom of speech
is an inalienable right of every citizen by the international convention to which Nigeria is a
signatory.
But the truth is that freedom goes with re- sponsibility. And so there must be a way to
make those who derive pleasure from hurting
other people pay for their irresponsible acts.
This is imperative in view of the fact that the
dynamics of social media encourage the swift
spread of rumours including false information
about individual deaths.
The threat of misinformation is not peculiar
to Nigeria alone. It is a global phenomenon
which is gradually assuming an alarming di- mension. For instance, in 2003, a spectacular
case emerged when it was reported that CNN
had accidentally published draft obituaries
for Nelson Mandela, and Pope John Paul II,
among others, on its Website. While this had
been blamed on technical or administrative er- ror, many analysts strongly believed that such
grave mistakes would proliferate as competi- tion among online news media intensified.
Following the error, a number of celebri- ties have indeed been the subject of false an- nouncements of death that have spread rapidly
across the social media. This, with an increas- ingly democratising online publishing, the
spread of false death news and announcements
have multiplied-often driven by deliberate acts
of disinformation, hoax or trolling rather than
by error, misreporting, or misinformation.
There are several ways false death an- nouncement can spread to the public. One is
by deliberately posting fake death information,
often as prank or scam. Sometimes, reporting
false death announcement could be based on
mistaken information. It could also be from the
hacked social media account of either a public
figure or news outlet. Whichever it happens, it
has to be nipped in the bud to prevent unpalat- able consequences for the individuals and the
nation at large.
The good news here in Nigeria is that Go- won is alive and kicking, cooling off in his
Plateau home state. For whatever mischief the
fake news of his death is intended, the former
military Head of State, a complete gentleman
and exemplary leader, holds no grudge against
anyone. He merely refuted the speculation and
wondered where the unfounded rumours start- ed from. His Personal Aide, Adeyeye Ajayi, in
a terse message sent to newsmen on Monday, said the former head of state is alive and well.
“I am still around and well. I am not in a
hurry”, Ajayi quoted Gowon as saying.
By professional standing, academic creden- tials, easy calm and general disposition, the reticent former military general is arguably
one of Nigeria’s finest leaders still around. Un- like his contemporaries bestriding the political
space like a colossus, he remains largely apo- litical. Some of his admirers describe him as
the ‘last good man standing.’
Gowon became the Head of State and Com- mander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria on July 19, 1966, at the youthful age of
31. From his early life through his stint in the
military and later, as Head of State, C-in-C, as
well as in post-service life, his actions revolved
around his guiding philosophy of a one united
Nigeria.
For his love and passion, some people have
turned his name to a well-known acronym:
‘Go On With One Nigeria.’
Understandably, because they see him as
one of the finest officers who led this coun- try in the most turbulent periods of its history.
During his nine years in power, he surrounded
himself with great minds made up of politi- cians, bureaucrats, technocrats and specialists,
who helped him to succeed in managing the
war and its economy such that Nigeria did not
take a single penny as a loan. Rather, Nigeria
leveraged on the oil boom and followed well-
laid-out development plans. He also helped to
ensure the unification of Nigeria to remain as a
single country by bringing an end to the Nige- rian civil war.
Besides that, he played a significant role in
the establishment of ECOWAS due to his firm
belief in the integration of the sub-region, as
well as the establishment of the National Youth
Service Corps to engender patriotism, industry
and sacrifice among Nigerian youths.
Since General Yakubu Gowon retired from
public life, he has been playing the role of fa- ther of the nation as he continued to selflessly
serve his country. In 1992, he founded his own
organization called the Yakubu Gowon Centre
for National Unity and International Coopera- tion which is working on issues of good gov- ernance in Nigeria as well as infectious disease
control including HIV/AIDS, guinea worm
and malaria, among others. Its main objective
is to ensure a strong and united Nigeria, free
of disease and poverty, where every citizen has
an opportunity for self-expression and the real- ization of their full potential. He is the founder
of a non-denominational religious group ‘NI- GERIA PRAYS. Till date, General Gowon is
playing the role of an elder statesman not only
in Nigeria, but in African politics. He holds a
PhD in Political Science from the University of
Warwick, United Kingdom.
