by Eze Eluchie
How was it
possible for the major international news networks (CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and
CCTV and quite a lot of others) to simultaneously, during the 1st week of June 2014, publish and broadcast the false news of the
abduction of over 20 Fulani women (wives of herdsmen) from their village near
Chibok, Bornu State in Nigeria’s fractured northeastern region?
This false
story was immediately lapped up and re-published almost to the punctuations by
several domestic media outlets in Nigeria who have come to think of news from
the international media houses as ‘evidence of truth’, even for what occurred in
streets on which the domestic media houses are located.
Clearly,
some deep-pocket, media-savvy and well connected entities are out to fan the
embers of strive in the Nigerian contraption. You do not just get virtually all
major media outfits to publish a lie with peanuts!
It took the
denial of the '20-Fulani-women-abduction' story by the umbrella organization of
Fulani, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) – who
are very outspoken and assertive on the rights of their peoples, to put a stop
to the lie.
Prior to the
clarification by MACBAN, the false news had created much distrust and palpable
tension amongst some Fulani migrant communities and their host in several
States across Nigeria.
Definitely,
more of such planted falsehoods will occur, with some resulting in orgies of
inter-ethnic and or ethno-religious conflagrations – those out to make the
country ungovernable are dedicated and well endowed to pursue their resolve.
The scourge
of (internally or externally) induced inter-ethnic and or ethno-religious
violence is one plague populations of sub-Saharan countries ought to be
perpetually ready to confront. Often times, the groups pushed into sectarian or
ethnic-based conflicts have peacefully co-habited for centuries and are at a loss
as to how the conflicts they find themselves enmeshed in got started in the
first instance. Well one of the ways of
starting off such conflicts is via implanted false media reports of mass
atrocities!
In this
instant case and for the Nigerian contraption, a holistic restructuring and
renegotiation of the may yet avails us a slim opportunity to overcome such scourges
with minimal material and human losses.
Picture: Ethnic tension boils over
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