Fake news of course knows no boundaries. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma former chairperson of the African Union (AU) and also an ANC member of parliament in South Africa has just rubbished reports that she wants to quit parliament because she is “tired, fatig

President Donald Trump of the United States of America it was who popularised the advent of fake news with his (in) famous fake news awards for year 2017. In truth the fake news phenomenon gained traction during the 2016 US presidential election with its related drama when Russia was accused of having allegedly influenced its outcome through pushing out of a series of fake news in the social media meant to sway voters. Till-date the relevant American institutions are still investigating those claims and it is one of the allegations hanging ominously on Trump’s neck like the sword of Damocles. Fake news reports are associated more with the social, online media. But these days even the conservative, once respected traditional media are also falling prey to it. For, often we hear of people countering some reports we had all swallowed hook, line and sinker. Alas the bug of fake news has also caught up with our media. The bottom-line is that anybody reading through our newspapers would have to put on his/her thinking cap, read between the lines to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, to sift out what is true and what is false.

Here are samples of a few fake news reports in our country in recent times: “Senator Jang denies saying Hausa/Fulani will never rule Nigeria again”. Any informed, unprejudiced and thinking person ought to realise or better said, ought to have doubts about the initial report in one Zuma Times quoting a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as having said that a “Hausa/Fulani man will never rule Nigeria again”. For, Senator Jonah Jang who represents Plateau North in the National Assembly being a politician, a governor and an arewa man is very well aware that elections are a game of numbers. It does not lie with him to decree by fiat that a Fulani man will never step foot into the Aso Rock villa again as even the votes in the length and breadth of his state represent a small percentage of the total votes required nationwide to elect a Nigerian president. Suppose the Zuma Times story was true, the unbiased reader would consider it as a foolish remark by a senator, former governor and northerner for that matter.

However, Senator Jang vehemently repudiated the news report credited to him, averring, “It is only a mad man that would say that in a democratic dispensation”. In throwing it back to the purveyor of this fake news, the senator appears to have spoken out of anger when he said further, “Senator Jonah Jang remains a giant among his equals, a beacon of hope to his people and a committed could be one of the things they reckon with when considering whether to grant you a visa, to let you into their country. So, refuting fake news about you is of great importance.

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu had to disown news reports that five delegates to the Second National Council on Niger-Delta died in an auto crash in the state. The fake reports were quoting an unnamed “eyewitness” who said that five people lost their lives in the accident. But the governor in a press statement by his chief press secretary, said, “Contrary to reports in the media that some delegates heading for the town hall meeting of the Second National Council on Niger Delta in Igbokoda, Ilaja local government area hosted by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in collaboration with Ondo