Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, has lambasted the BBC over its fact-check report wherein it stated that there was no evidence to show that President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University (CSU) certificate was forged.
In a statement on Wednesday, Shaibu described the report as a hatchet job, adding that the outrage it had generated from the generality of Nigerians was enough evidence to show that the BBC goofed.
The Atiku’s aide said the BBC’s move was not surprising as it was in line with a previous statement he had issued wherein he had revealed that the Tinubu administration was set to unleash its full propaganda programme.
He said, “Sometime last week, when the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) issued a final warning to Arise News TV, we pointed out that the Tinubu administration was on the verge of launching a full blown propaganda and also intimidating ‘uncooperative’ media houses into discrediting and downplaying the CSU scandal. Sadly, we never imagined that it would be the BBC that would become the willing tool.
“It is unconscionable, appalling and preposterous that in this current information age, a foreign medium of repute could try to bamboozle Nigerians with a jaundiced report when the details are clear for everyone to see. Thank God young Nigerians have begun filing complaints against the hack writers who decided to soil their names for a bowl of porridge.
“We are not ignorant of the machinations of the BBC and its bias towards the current government. It is unfortunate that the BBC is not upholding the same standards as they would uphold in the UK where a Prime Minister was forced out of office for hosting a party during COVID-19. In 2009, columnist Mehdi Hasan wrote in the New Statesman that the BBC was biased ‘towards power and privilege, tradition and orthodoxy.’
“It is no wonder that in the last one year, the only news medium that was given exclusive access to interview Tinubu was the BBC. It is sickening that the BBC has decided to surrender its platform to a man who was accused of illegal drug trafficking in the United States.
“In the so-called fact-check report, the BBC decided to bury in the last paragraphs the fact that Tinubu claimed to have attended Government College, Lagos in 1970 when the school was established in 1974. Why didn’t these so-called fact-checkers reflect it on their headline?
“What is the essence of the report when it failed to uncover the most critical questions? If this report was aimed at fact-checking, it should have mentioned the year the certificate was obtained by Tinubu from the CSU and if the one he submitted to INEC is the same one he received from CSU.
“Tinubu said at Chatham House that he had received a replacement from CSU when the school said in unambiguous terms that he had not done so. What was the date he applied for his INEC replacement certificate from CSU, and when was it it issued to him?
“The investigation was clearly carried out with a predetermined goal, which was to clear Tinubu. But let us ask the BBC if they would employ anyone who has had a case of drug trafficking in the US before and if he had three dates of birth in his official records as well as two different genders as well as attending a secondary school before it was established.”
Shaibu called on the BBC and other fact-checkers to be more circumspect, adding that their job was too sensitive to entertain errors.
“On November 28, 2022, Africa Check, one of the highly funded fact check organisations, claimed that the report by the opposition that Tinubu had lied that he attended Government College, Lagos was false.
“After Atiku Abubakar, through his daring court case, decided to blow open the lid, it turned out that the opposition was right all along. Till date, Africa Check has also not apologised for misleading the public. This is the new reality that we face. Who will fact-check the fact-checkers?”
He advised media organisations to invest more in investigative journalism.
“If the BBC had invested in proper investigative journalism, it would have been the one uncovering some of Tinubu’s scandals instead of relying on Atiku for information on Tinubu’s certificates,” Shaibu said.
In the meantime, Shaibu has lambasted President Tinubu for holding just one cabinet meeting since taking office 135 days ago.
He said it was ironic that Tinubu, who has the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s history, had decided not to meet with them.
Atiku’s aide said, “Tinubu is obviously not ready for governance. After appointing 48 ministers – the highest in history – he has decided not to be meeting with them. This contravenes Section 148(2) of the 1999 Constitution, which expressly provides that the President shall hold regular meetings with the Vice President and ministers for the purposes of determining domestic and foreign policies of the government.
“It is bad enough that a man who claimed he would hit the ground running from day one took over 60 days to name all his ministers and took 84 days to inaugurate them. Even now, he has held only one cabinet meeting since the inauguration of the cabinet. For a man who has been gallivanting all over the place purportedly in search of foreign investors, it is laughable that he cannot even meet with his own team at home. Meanwhile, concerned Nigerians are asking #WhereIsTinubu?
“The reason is simple, though. His administration has brought nothing but untold hardship to Nigerians, including inflation, a very weak currency, and insecurity. He and his appointees are clueless. Hence, they have nothing to discuss.”
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