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| Sen Adoke |
INTERVIEW: IF FAKE NEWS PEDDLERS ARE
TO BE PROSECUTED, LAI MOHAMMED WILL GO TO PRISON -SEN ADOKE
Suleiman Adoke Is the Senator representing
Nasarawa South Senatorial District at the National Assembly. He is also the
Chairman Senate Committee on Information and member of series of committees.
Recently in Jos, he spoke to journalists on his view on fake news and other
wide ranging national issues. African Drum was there and brings to you excerpts.
Recently, you raised a motion at the upper chamber
bordering on fake news. What really prompted you into raising that motion?
What I said
has to do with the fact that because the social media, there are a lot of news
items flying around. And we know the BBC had to make some comments about news being
flying. It’s not limited only to Nigeria its universal. What we need to do is
to be able to acquire the ability to distinguish what is fake and what is good.
Fake news is
characterized by photo shopping; news that is disjointed and if you are smart enough,
you will able to know there is no link between the paragraphs of the news. So
it has become a problem all over the world, it is not just Nigeria. It is not
something you can legislate out of existence other than to deal with it as the
laws existing has provided. If you do something that is inimical to someone
well-being, he has the right to seek for redressed in the court of law. I think
when some people are prosecuted for peddling fake news it will now dawn on
people that this thing cannot go unpunished.
Again,
government should not criminalizes ordinary political comments and reduce them
to fake news, because you have to be very careful so we did not play into the
hands of repressive regimes. They can start labeling news as fake and then
criminalized it and put you in prison. We should be able to distinguish between
mere political comments. Comments that
are aimed at getting vote should not be reduced to criminal act to create an
opportunity to jail people. These are areas of worry that we are concerned
about.
I am a PDP
member and I believe that APC peddles more fake news than anyone. If we’re to
prosecute them, Lai Muhammad should go to prison immediately. But we take it as
political statements and also vote catching statements. They are party
statements and we take it like that.
But
certainly, every fake news that is aimed at creating disaffection in the society
that would lead to people killing others or raising sentiment of one community
against the other should be dealt with instantly. But if you say Dr. Adoke is so,
so and so simply because you want to beat him at the polls, I don't take that
as anything. I can also find something to say about you. Its a normal cause of
event to canvass for votes.
What
people are saying is that you that motion was meant to satisfy your personal
interest because already the current status quo of the law has taken care of
that and if such thing come up, why can't one utilizes the existing law?
Yes, there are existing laws that deals with
the aspect of Libel and Defamation of character, and these laws are available
to anybody who feels aggrieved to do so. At the same time, we are aware that
there is a specific class of fake news that is creating disaffection among
communities. Things that are not true or if you say so, so, community is about
to attack so, so, community you're a war monger and that is quite dangerous
because it can create anarchy in the society.
But what I am also saying is that you must not
confuse that with a statement of someone looking for votes and attacking your
person as a politician. Of course if volunteer into boxing arena, you cannot
complain of assault. If you put yourself into an election, people would say
things about you. For instance, if the people say you don't have a correct certificate,
you have to bring it out and show them to prove them wrong. You people are
lying, this is my certificate! There is nothing people would not throw at you
if you come to seek for election. They would attack you including your person;
your physic, fitness, all would be subject of discussion. The moment you just declare to be president,
there is nothing hidden about your health anymore. You may try to hide it but
people would always have a way of bringing it out.
There are
president that rule in the United States seating in the wheel chair at that
time if the public knew their health status earlier, they wouldn’t have voted
them in.
What is your take on the series of
defections at the National Assembly?
The first thing we should all consider is that
the Constitution did contemplate that people should defect and also provided
that you can only defect under certain conditions. That means that it is
something that Constitution even contemplated that people in the normal way of
politicking are likely to be disenchanted and can also switch to other platforms.
So the Constitution has made provision for that. But there are parameters under
which you can do that.
Again,
because of the rights of the people, the same Constitution made it only the
purview of the presiding officers in the National Assembly to declare such
seats vacant. It is only the Senate President and the speaker of House of Representatives
that can declare any seat vacant. I t means that, that right to defect is well
protected so I do not see reason why people disturb themselves over this issue.
This thing happened every four years and it is always an outcome of local
politics.
What people are saying is that they are doing
that for their own personal interest not for the interest of the electorates
who voted them into power?
Every interest is vested! You that is standing
for election you know what your people want. If you’re defecting because of
your own personal interest you are going to face the electorates. And so the
person who is defecting is not stupid. He knows that at the end of the day he
will go and face the voters and he knows that if the voters don't like the new
party he wound do it.
No body does
that for the sake of the Christmas party. It is the reflection of what is going
on their various constituencies. Don't forget that in spite of that, the
Constitution said you must stand for election in a political party. But most of
the voters vote for the person standing for election at the end of the day.
Do you
think the development is healthy to our democracy with massive detection all
over?
This is
neither here nor there. I always say we cannot discuss this issue in a vacuum.
It is the reflection of our third world politics. Our politics is not matured
to the extent that people are ideologically committed. People just seek for
political offices and it doesn't matter what political platform.
Where there
is ideological commitment, you will find out that not only an individual but a
generation of his family belongs to only that political party. There are
established families in America who would never cross from Democrat to Republican,
same in United Kingdom there are families who can never leave the Conservatives
party to Labour party. Ours is just being built, In fact, the political parties
that I knew would have bring Nigeria that kind of tradition was NRC and SDP but
their life span were Short lived.
Now we would
continue to do this. Things would stabilize in future most especially the PDP
and I can tell you now that PDP as a party has developed a' hard core members'.
APC is existing because of Buhari and if you remove Buhari APC is gone. May be
if you give them 20,30years they may develop into becoming' hard core party'.
But we PDP I have been in PDP since 1998 including my children, I don't see
them leaving PDP not because of me but the party has now developed to a 'hard
core party' and it would continue to be like that. For now we don't know for
APC yet because it is built around Buhari. Recently, somebody I respect very
much, a Lawyer said if Buhari loses in 2019 this country will crumble. That
just gave you the idea how it is not a serious party. If you are building your
success on just one man then there is a problem with APC.
So it is an
evolving process with time we are going to mature much more than political
system.
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Sir your state Nasarawa has been
involved in crises most especially your constituency in Nasarawa South senatorial district.
However, we learned that people are now returning to their homes, what has been
your effort towards that success?
Well, if you’re
following events in this country, I raised a motion to draw the attention of
entire world to what was going on there. I thank God Almighty that, that motion
stood out virtually every other item in the Chamber for two hours. It was
thoroughly debated. The matter was air by all television houses including the
international media like BBC, Al-Jazeera and the rest of them.
And for the
first time the country attention was drawn to what was going on because
Killings was going on, there was massive cover up but that exposed what was
going on. And I thank God the government responded favorably and sent in
military personnel and to God be the glory people are returning to their shanties.
So I feel high sense of fulfilment.
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