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Punch Newspaper: Quoting El-Rufai and Changing what he said at the same time

Many would have seen the “shocking” headline on Punch and Oak Tv. “We warned Buhari not to appoint Aisha Alhassan”. Punch even added that the Governor “lambasted” the Minister for being “disloyal” to the President.

Breaking News: the truth is standing on its head.

Alfred Tennyson rightly observed that a lie which is half true is the darkest of lies.

Changing the Overall message

The crux of the matter has always been that a “Buhari Minister” has abandoned him, so when the Governor spoke, the bulk of his message was about how there was no abandonment as Alhassan was included in the Government despite the fact known to all that she is Pro-Atiku. This was clearly to show that her support for someone else other than Buhari for 2019 does not represent a betrayal or surprise or a lost of popularity on the part of the President.

This is evident in the Governor’s summation of his whole talk as follows:

“Government sets policies and as a Minister you execute those policies. You can execute those policies while pursuing a different brand of politics and IT IS OK, there is no problem with that”

At this point, a media guy looking for a good story asked the Governor if he thinks she should be retained and he again emphasized his whole point

“You can retain a person in the Cabinet even if he doesn’t support you, provided he adds value to the country. This is a Government, it is not a political grouping…if Jummia Alhassan is performing as Minister of Women Affairs and adding value to the government and the people of Nigeria, it is the President perogative to retain her in spite of her political views…i don’t think people should get too worried about it.”

By this direct quote from Oak Tv’s video, the headline should have read something like El Rufai says Jummai’s political choice is a non-issue. But then that will not generate traffic.

It is a matter of concern how the media makes money off the back of people and their relationships.

“We” should include the Narrator

The Governor said “…many people in the Buhari camp did not support it” but this meant, to qualified journalists, that the narrator was included in the many who were against Alhassan’s nomination.

While not stating in clear terms that El-Rufai was not part of the many in Buhari’s camp who objected to the Minister’s nomination, what is clear is that “many opposed” is not the same as “we opposed”. If anything, that the Governor referred to those who opposed in third party terms tilts towards the possibility that he was not part of them. To change “many” to “we” is just irresponsible. Massively so.

“Many” to “We”, “We” to “APC leadership”

While Oak Tv was apparently changing context for traffic, the fellow who wrote the Punch piece obviously did not watch the video he was writing about.

The Punch report stated that

“Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State says President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Aisha Alhassan as a minister despite complaints by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress.”


This is how “Two business partners kill a third” metamorphose into “Two Fulani Herdsmen kill a third” before it becomes “Two Fulani herdsmen kills someone who is not Fulani”. From the We that never was to defining the We. The idea being IF El-Rufai said ‘We warned Buhari…’ AND El-Rufai is an APC leader, THEN APC leaders complained about it. IF Chwukwuma thinks Biafra is bae, AND Chinonso did not say he disagrees, THEN Igbo people want Biafra. When you have such media houses in an already polarized country, where is the hope?

Oh Yes, Traffic and the Illusion of it

Oak Tv has this badly quoted video of Governor Nasir El Rufai up on their website as well as on their Youtube Channel, but that is not the gist. The gist is that while the Video has just over 2,800 views and more dislikes than likes on Youtube, it miraculously has 17,000 views on their adjustable website.

People seem to be watching a Youtube embedded video on a website more than they are watching the same video on Youtube. Tech guy’s will be doing Wehdon Sir.

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ETN24 - Explaining the News is about putting News in the correct context to promote understanding and education. We believe News should educate, not agitate. Our dedication is to fighting Fake and Sensational News, as well as to keep an eye on the media to ensure our peace and sanity are not sold for traffic.
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