Media and misinformation

Recently, there was Media report that a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, ordered the National Assembly to immediately commence the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari. This is a fake news targeted at smearing the character of Governor Rauf Aregbesola. Till date, a section of media in Osun State has not told Nigerians positive developments in Osun State. When one considers the gross underreporting of developmental strides by the state and the frequent lies published as truth against the current administration, there is only one valid conclusion: Osun is indeed under a media siege.

Facts have emerged that the Osogbo  High Court presided over by Justice Maurine Adaobi Onyetenu did not order the National Assembly to commence impeachment process against President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to a 2-page Certified True Copy of the court papers signed by the Senior Registrar,  H.E Enemodia, the court only granted the applicants, Mr Kanmi Ajibola and Sulaiman Alimi the leave to issue and bring an application to the court for an order of mandamus to compel the National Assembly to start the impeachment proceedings against the President.

There is a partial media blackout in the state of Osun. There is almost no reporting on positive developmental strides taken by the government. Has the media in Osun State collapsed? This question is germane because  Osun makes leading headlines for negative reasons, but when there are positive developments in Osun, the media will be silent. Since 2012 when Governor Aregbesola started the Osun school feeding programme, a section of the media has been silent on it. When Governor Aregbesola took Sukuk Bond, a section of the media said that Aregbesola wanted to Islamise Nigeria. Now that Sukuk projects are being commissioned, the media is silent.

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Instead, the reports that make it to the media appears to be a huge smear campaign of Aregbesola’s character by paid ‘bloggers’, who use smear headlines like ‘Osun Pensioners IDP Camp’, ‘Islamising Osun’, ‘Osun Debt’, and others to smear the character of the Governor. A section of Osun media is curiously silent on more than 300 metres of roads constructed across various local government areas of the state and the East-West bypass in Osogbo.

Though a number of these developments have been reported and discussed in the press. Unfortunately however, it appears that the press can hardly pass off an opportunity to drop a negative line or two about Aregbesola. This was evident in how quickly he was made the scapegoat among the 26 or so governors owing salary arrears of their workers.

Inwalomhe Donald,

 Benin.