Oct. 1, 2021

​President Muhammadu Buhari has called on the media to be responsible in the dissemination of information to the public.

The President said this in a broadcast message to the nation to mark the country’s 61st independence on Friday.

He noted that the seeds of violence are planted in people’s heads through words. “Reckless utterances of a few have led to losses of many innocent lives and destruction of properties”.

He noted that such unfiltered and unsubstantiated lies and hate speeches by a few evil persons must be stopped. “Our media houses and commentators must move away from just reporting irresponsible remarks to investigating the truth behind all statements and presenting the facts to readers”.

“I will therefore take this opportunity, on this special day that symbolises the unity and oneness of our great nation, to ask all Nigerians to embrace peace and dialogue, whatever your grievances”.

“​We must all come out and speak against the lies being peddled. At this point, I would want to sincerely appreciate the large number of our Traditional, Religious and Community leaders as well as other well-meaning Nigerians who, in their various fora are openly spreading the message of peaceful co-existence and conflict settlement through dialogue in their respective communities”.

“Nigeria is for all of us. Its unity is not negotiable. And its ultimate success can only be achieved if we all come together with a common goal of having peace and prosperity for our nation”.

“​We shall continue to work on dialogue based solutions to address legitimate grievances. But we remain ready to take decisive actions against secessionist agitators and their sponsors who threaten our national security”, Buhari added.