When Rumour Mongers Flourish

“It’s not mere extremism that makes folks at the fringes so troubling; its extremism wedded to false beliefs. Humans have long been dupes, easily gulled by rumors and flat-out lies!” – Jeffrey Kluger

This is the season when rumor mongers are at their very best. They feed on half-truths and lies and make them so viral that they are almost like consuming wildfires.

Take the controversy surrounding General Muhammadu Buhari’s school leaving certificate. His campaign would have been in shambles by now if the Katsina State Ministry of Education had not provided him some comfort by clearing the air over the controversy. And then imagine the wider consequences for Nigeria’s elections if the situation had been allowed to fester.

So, speak out upright Nigerians and friends of Nigeria (especially when you see desperados in operation, and especially when you know wrong information is being covertly passed and parsed through gullible intermediaries to tarnish images, heritages and our collective history.)

It’s the only way we can collectively move this moribund nation forward!

This country is at a crucial crossroad, and we can’t allow rumor mongers and extremist ideologues to derail the progress of the most important black nation in the world.

It is quite obvious that poverty is the biggest problem in the third world. It leads to desperation, gullibility and sow seeds of discord, which can be exploited for other malicious purposes.