Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on New Media, Reno Omokri, has reacted to a report by an online newspaper, Premium Times, that his boss lied when he recently announced that Awka, the capital city of Anambra witnessed three weeks of uninterrupted electricity supply.
In an interview with DailyPost, Mr. Omokri said the paper did not carry out a balanced reportage before reaching a conclusion, adding that the feat recorded in Awka was indeed true and verifiable.
Excerpts:
Recently, the President mentioned on Facebook that Awka in Anambra state recorded three weeks of steady electricity supply. That statement was however punctured by Premium Times, what is your take on this?
Thank you for your question regarding the veracity of Premium Times’ report on the uninterrupted power supply enjoyed by Awka in Anambra state.
would want to start off by saying that, very few people take Premium Times seriously after they have been proven time and again to be an unreliable medium. They were caught lying when they falsely reported that former Ghanaian President, Jerry Rawlings, indicted Nigeria’s current administration for corruption. President Jerry Rawlings never said such and in their defence, Premium Times claimed to have used “interpretative journalism” which is their euphemism for lying. They forget that it is the job of the media to report the news accurately. It is the reader who is to interpret what they read.
Are you accusing the paper of bias?
Premium Times is an outfit set up by disgruntled politicians. Ask them whether or not their top editors worked for a Presidential candidate who was defeated by the President in 2011.
When an outfit tags itself as the press, it is presumed that they are members of the fourth estate of the realm capable of giving unbiased information to the public. But where a defeated presidential candidate’s media team sets up a media house, how can anybody expect that such an outfit will be impartial and report the truth?
It is a legal truism that no man can be a judge in his own case. These folks have a grudge against the President. He defeated their man in a free and fair election. They cannot attempt to get what they lost in a credible election by masquerading as the free press.
But the medium has made a name for its investigative stories…
Premium Times is a habitual peddler of falsehood. Let them take me to court and I will prove what I have just said beyond all reasonable doubt. For instance, on June 12 2013 Premium Times ran a headline stating ‘World Bank Indicts Jonathan’s Government, says Massive Poverty Unemployment Killing Nigerians’. That headline and story was fictitious and malicious. The World Bank itself whose report Premium Times allegedly relied upon for their story released its own press release with the title ‘Nigeria Economic Update: World Bank Forecasts Rising Growth, Less Inflation, Urges Closer Federal and State Government Cooperation’. Nigerians can read the World Bank Press Release here(http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/05/13/nigeria-economic-update-world-bank-forecasts-rising-growth-less-inflation-urges-closer-federal-and-state-government-cooperation) and compare with the malicious story by Premium Times and make up their minds on who between the two of them are lying especially as Premium Times claimed to have taken its cue from the World Bank.
Also, on the 14th of June, Premium Times carried a story titled ‘Nigeria: Exclusive – Okonjo-Iweala Opens Up, Says Nigeria Economy in Danger’ and quoted an unnamed source. This story is false as was evidenced when the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, released the transcripts of that meeting which showed that the Premium Times story had no basis in truth. Indeed, contrary to their story, the Nigerian economy is healthy and has received the highest Foreign Direct Investment in Africa for the last fiscal year, is set to become Africa’s largest economy when our GDP is debased, and has been listed by multilateral bodies including the Clinton Foundation and the Bretton Woods institutions as amongst the world’s 10 fastest growing economies. This is even as the World Bank in May of 2013 promoted Nigeria to a Middle Income Nation from the Low Income Nation status Nigeria had hitherto had.
It is clear that the job of Premium Times is to give the worst possible interpretation to the best possible news, and using lies in place of “interpretative journalism”.
Back to the Awka story, is the President’s statement correct or just a mere claim as being purported?
The good news of Awka’s three weeks of uninterrupted power supply is factual. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, confirms this truth and attributes it to the activation of the Awka-Agu substation which is an initiative of the National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP. The governor of Anambra state, Governor Peter Obi, a member of the opposition All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, corroborates this truth. The senator representing the people of Awka, Senator Chris Ngige, also a member of the opposition, in this case, the All Progressive Congress, APC, corroborates this truth. I also did a survey on Twitter and it was corroborated by residents of Awka.
If these real and verifiable people have confirmed the good news, should we now discountenance them for the testimony of faceless persons relied upon by Premium Times? Is this the first time they have lied?
Don’t you think the controversy stemmed from the fact that some Facebook respondents as well as some Awka residents said they weren’t part of those who enjoyed the uninterrupted supply?
The uninterrupted power supply is for Awka metropolis. Awka, being the Anambra state capital has some outlying areas which though are referred to by the residents as Awka are not really in Awka metropolis. For them to benefit from this feat, they have to be in the Awka Metropolis and be connected to the Awka-Agu substation.
Finally, let me state that Nigeria under President Jonathan is progressing. Nigerians are noticing it when they enter a train from Lagos to Kano and pay only 1500 Naira. I am not saying the trains are the most luxurious trains in the world, but where they had no trains before President Jonathan, they have trains today. Also, the world is noticing it as evidenced by the admission by President Obama on the 12th of August, 2012 that Nigeria is the next big thing in the world economy, a fact corroborated by British Prime Minister, David Cameron who said in his address to the Conservative Party on the 12of October last year that “Yes, we’ve been hearing about China and India for years …but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria too.
In the light of the above, disgruntled elements who pretend to be the free press must soon realize that no matter how far falsehood has traveled, it must eventually be overtaken by truth.
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