Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has said that after listening to the audio of the Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, he did not find any insult in it.
Recall that audio had gone viral over the internet recently in which the Minister of Transportation made some statement about the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to audio released by Phrank Shaibu, an aide of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Amaechi, said this in a conversation with some journalists.
In the clip, Amaechi, who is the Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, purportedly said Buhari neither reads nor listens to anyone.
Speaking in a BBC News symposium that addresses fake news in Abuja on Wednesday, Soyinka urged the traditional media not to act like the electronic media by spreading unfounded allegations.
He said, “Just two or three days ago, I read an item where a minister was supposed to have insulted the President and it was carried in some media and I checked the statement and of course there was a video and so on and I looked through it, I read the text again and again and I said I have to relearn the English language because I didn’t see where the insults were.
“So sometimes, print media feels compelled to compete with the electronic media and this is a great mistake because there is a reputation, there is an expectation and you should not be embarrassed to show yourself superior to a medium which is accessible to the lowest, the very dregs of society.”
