UK Parliament Urged To Reject Negative Narratives About Nigeria

Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sarafa Tunji Isola, has urged the United Kingdom Parliament to verify information about Nigeria in order not to be misinformed by social media sources even as tasked the British lawmakers to get the true information about Nigeria through official channels.

The envoy said this in his keynote address at the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Nigeria at the United King-dom Parliament, Westminster on Tuesday November 29 in view of the negative narratives being bandied to tarnish Nigeria’s image especially at this time that the nation is facing challenges of insecurity.

Ambassador Isola in the address entitled” British Nigerians: Changing the Narratives”, told his audience that despite the challenges of insecurity caused by the Boko Haram terrorists, bandits and the unrest in the oil-producing Niger-Delta region, the Nigerian state has managed to address these challenges in the most effective way and made the country conducive for business.

“Some of the greatest challenges and threats to Nigeria, our dear country, are misinformation, disinformation and ma-linformation. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information, especially that which is deliberately intended to de-ceive. Disinformation is information deliberately created to mislead, harm or manipulate a person, social group, organ-ization or country. Malinformation is information based on a fact but used out of context to mislead, harm or manipu-late Citizens of our country and foreigners are both guilty of deploying these instruments of destruction.

“For the purpose of this discussion, it is important to stress that Nigeria is a unique country and must be understood from this important perspective – a country of 225 million people with 250 ethnic groups and 500 distinct languages. This complexity is unique and quite challenging.

“I would therefore wish to plead with distinguished members of the House of Commons to always verify information received on Nigeria from many unofficial sources. The British High Commission in Nigeria, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), The Commonwealth, the Office of the National Security Adviser in Britain, and credi-ble Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are veritable sources of information on Nigeria available to the House of Commons and other interested groups in the United Kingdom,” he said.

He said Nigeria still remains one of the most profitable countries for business activities because of the high rate of re-turn on investment in our country.

“It is not by accident that the richest man in Africa is a Nigerian-based businessman – Aliko Dangote who is worth $12.16 billion whilst the richest woman in Africa is also a Nigerian-based businesswoman – Folorunsho Alakija. Three of the 10 richest men in Africa are also Nigerian-based businessmen, namely Aliko Dangote, Samad Rabiu and Mike Adenuga. Nigeria, therefore, beckons on investors to engage and take advantage of the large market, which expands into most of the ECOWAS region” he added.

The envoy also charged Nigerians in the diaspora to refrain from the unverified negative narratives through the social media and other unverified sources of information on Nigeria.

“We should be Ambassadors of efforts and actions that would make Nigeria great,” he added.