Lai Mohammed, the former Minister of Information and Culture, has disclosed the impact of social media on his four-decade-long marriage.
Speaking at an event commemorating Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka’s 90th birthday in Lagos, Mohammed highlighted the pervasive challenge of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation during his tenure.
He revealed that the relentless spread of falsehoods nearly jeopardized his marriage, emphasizing the profound consequences of misinformation in society.
“Permit me to share publicly with you today for the first time, how social media threatened the foundation of my forty-year-old marriage.
“It was sometimes in 2018 when I came to Lagos from Abuja for an official assignment. As usual, I retire to bed about midnight, but about 3 am, my wife gently roused me from my slumber.
“At first, I panicked, fearing that there had been a security breach, but my wife’s mien belied that possibility, for she was calm and composed.
“Solemnly, my wife asked me if I was fully awake as there were some serious issues to discuss,” he said.
The former minister described the accusation from his wife as “bombshell”.
He said he could not believe that his wife could believe the fake story in circulation crediting huge sums of money in overseas accounts to government functionaries/ministers under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
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According to him, social media remain the platforms of choice for the purveyors of fake news, anti-state groups, anarchists, secessionists, terrorists and bandits.
He noted that while in government, his ministry uncovered 476 online publications that were dedicated to spreading fake news against the previous administration.
The former minister said fake news has become exponential through the use of Artificial Intelligence and deep learning techniques to create highly realistic fake or manipulated videos, audio recordings or images.
