Unearthing The Big Lies Of Sahara Reporters Against Dambazau -By Edwin Uhara

In a work entitled: ”Big lie is a propaganda technique,” Joseph
Goebbels, late propaganda chief to the former German leader, Adolph
Hitler stated: ”If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
the people will eventually believe it. He went further by saying that
”The most brilliant propandist’s technique will yield no success
unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly- that it
must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”

However, in supporting Goebbels, Adolph Hitler added that ”All
propaganda has to be popular and have to accommodate itself to the
comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to
reach. He went further to say that through clever and constant
application of propaganda; the people can be made to see paradise as
hell. To do this, Hitler suggested that the propaganda machinery must
make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually the
people will believe it. According to him, ”The great masses of the
people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one,
because the victor will never be asked if he told the truth.

The above expressions and illustrations can best describe the hatchet
job Sahara Reporters have agreed to do for its paymaster against the
Honorable Minister of Interior, retired Lieutenant General
Abdulrahman Bellow Dambazau for supporting President Buhari and
insisting that things must be rightly done in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that upon assumption of office, the President told
Nigerians that if you kill corruption, corruption will kill you. With
this in mind, I believe the President knew very well that if one is
coming to kill corruption,  it will put up stiff resistance or fight
back because in every action, there is equal and opposite reaction.

Hence, with the series of falsehood, fabricated stories and frivolous
media campaign launched against the Interior Minister, General
Dambazau and his Ministry by Sahara Reporters and its allies in the
media, one does not require the services of a prophet to why this is
happening!

First, Sahara Reporters and it allies claimed that the retired General
deducted one billion naira every month from defence budget when he was
Chief of Army Staff. This is untrue as the fabricators failed to
realize that when General Dambazau was Army Chief between 2008 and
2010, Nigeria was facing serious cash crunch caused the Global
Economic Crisis of 2008 which led to severe austerity and closure of
many institutions in the country. For Example, the following banks ran
out of cash and were taken over by other banks. There are; defunct
Afribank, Oceanic Bank, Spring Bank, Bank of the North etc. It was
during this period that Nigeria’s mono product- oil sold for between
$30 and $35 which depleted government revenue and caused budget
deficit for the nation. It was also during this period that inflation
went over the roof forcing the Central Bank of Nigeria to attempt
restructuring the Naira by moving two zeros backward to equate our One
Naira to one United States Dollars. So, if one billion naira was going
out the economy every month in an economy that would crumble if half a
billion is removed from it, how come the Nigeria did not collapse? Big
lie earthed!

Secondly, Sahara Reporters and its allies alleged that General
Dambazau doctored the arms probe panel report, but the same medium
failed to understand that Dambazau was only appointed Chief of Army
Staff in 2008 and not 2007 as their report claimed. The question every
rational thinker should ask Sahara Reporters is why all these media
attacks on Dambazau without extending it to the man who was there from
2007-2008 if it is not fronting for some persons?

Besides, when Dambazau was there as Army Chief, the power to award
military contracts resided not in his office but with the Ministry of
Defence. Also, during the reign of General Dambazau as Army Chief, a
body called Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU)
popularly known as Due Process that handled anything that have to do
with the pricing and monitoring of all government contracts while the
Ministry of Defence awards the contract. So, it has nothing to do with
General Dambazau! It was when the General left office that so many
things changed. For Example, we no longer have the BMPIU or Due
Process Office to do its job, instead we now have the Bureau of Public
Procurement (BPP). I certainly do not want to believe that those
trying at all course to accuse General Dambazau of any wrong doing are
suffering from memory interferance.

There are many big lies concocted by Sahara Reporters against General
Dambazau which many Nigerians have already dismissed as cock and bull
story, but last one  I want to address is the current big lies that
as Interior Minister, the General bought a House in the United States
of America.

From the report alone, Sahara Reporters exposed itself as hired
propaganda machinery against General Dambazau. For Example, the medium
claimed that the Minister bought a house in 2013 when he was not
holding any public office and subsequently sold it in 2015, but only
for it to now claim that the Minister bought a house as Minister of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Haba Sahara Reporters? One cannot
approbate and reprobate and likewise, no one can be dead and be alive
at the same time!

Therefore, hiding under the power of Yellow Journalism and Thunderous
Journalism to missapply Walter Lippmann’s Agender Setting Theory of
the media which says that the media have not only succeeded in putting
pictures on people’s head but have also succeeded in telling people
how to think about issues and using it at the same time to fire the
Magic Bullet of the media at a man who have done the nation proud and
is still doing it proud because of narrow and parochial interest is a
mockery of media freedom.

Finally, I urge Sahara Reporters and its allies to stop being pawn in
the hands of Nigeria’s enemies because in a growing democracy like
ours, the media ought to be a partner in progress and not a tool for
destabilization.

Comrade Edwin Uhara is a Journalist and Public Affairs Commentator.
He writes from Enugu State, Nigeria