Nigeria in battle with 2 pandemics of coronavirus, fake news, as Minister denies report that visiting Chinese doctor tests positive for virus

By Bashir Adefaka

Sad that whereas many other countries of the world, particularly in other affected African countries are fully behind their respective governments in achieving sustainable victory against the deadly coronavirus ravaging the global society, many media and political elements in Nigeria are conspiring against the state by making sure that the anticipated victory will be hard to come by in their own country as they continue to compound the already endangered situation with unabated fake news and dangerous rumours.  This has been revealed by findings of The DEFENDER.

The latest of such destructive unpatriotic media practice being the report in some media (The DEFENDER excluded) that one of the 15 doctors sent to the country by the Peoples Republic of China to help in the fight against the disease tested positive for the coronavirus, whereas it was all fake and mere figment of imagination of the author and its co-opts.

It will be recalled that the Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had last week during a Presidential Task Force (PTF) media briefing in Abuja said that those who publish fake news within the Nigerian press do so to attack the integrity of the government to make it look nonperforming.  He added that while the fake report that he said government had released N100 billion to Nigerians and that there was therefore no hunger in the land during the coronavirus lockdown was an attempt to incite the public against him and Muhammadu Buhari government, the other report that NCDC spent N1 billion on sms was mainly to weaken the director general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control knowing full well that he is central to achieving the much expected success in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Nigeria is not the only country of the world that has need China’s assistance for immediate and future purposes.  It has been widely reported that even the United States of America’s President Donald Trump – for whose reason, a source said, the Nigerian elements against China’s romance with the country are doing their fake news and other propaganda – has not only telephoned to seek the help of China’s President Xi Jinping but also his country, America, has taken delivery of 1,000 ventilators from Beijing to fight the pandemic that has made it world worst hit in terms of everything including number of deaths.

This attitude therefore by those elements within the religous and political setting in Nigeria do not seem to desire that the country help itself and its innocent people out of the problem.  “They are however joking because China has come to stay with us and anyone who does not like it can find a better place for him or herself,” the source said.

In the meantime, the Federal Government has said that none of the 15 Chinese medical experts who arrived the country last week Wednesday tested positive for the COVID-19.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said this on Wednesday in Abuja at the 12th joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, added that such rumour like the other fake news on COVID-19 are regrettable.

He also dismissed reports that members of the National Assembly had shared a N500m of N700m fund each to help in the COVID-19 efforts.

According to him, the task force had been devoting as much energy in the fight against COVID-19 to also dispelling fake news, to distract the efforts of government in fighting the pandemic.

He urged Nigerians to discard reports about the government’s efforts to beat back COVID-19, which did not emanate from the daily briefings or the website of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

“Whether members of the National Assembly are sharing N700 million, just as we are trying to fight and contain Coronavirus, a lot of energy is also being expended in fighting fake news. To the best of my knowledge, I am not aware that any such money has been given to members of the National Assembly, but I know that fake news is not abating.

“This morning, there was a message that went viral, to the effect that one of the Chinese doctors tested positive and that news was supposed to have emanated from the Twitter handle of the federal government. I want to say, to the best of our knowledge here, there’s no such thing.”