Just a few days ago, the Presidency announced that it will be clamping down on anybody who peddles damaging rumours about the President’s health. As I write this, it is unclear if this falls under the category of “damaging rumours”. What is however clear is that when facts are not presented to dispel rumours, they feed fat, and blossom. The attempt here is to offer an easier way of dispelling the rumours(which will cost less and be faster than “clamping down” on rumour mongers)

Now, two publications started this whole trend of President Buhari being dead, or committing suicide. One was a purported publication by Metro UK(which claimed the President died in a London hospital), and another by Huffington Post(which alleged that security around the President has been beefed up following his attempt at suicide). While Huffington Post and Metro UK are credible international news sources, a little scraping of the surface immediately reveals that the publications did not emanate from the famed news outlets. Cable NG, in an incisive work, had done half the job for the Presidency by revealing the following;

The two sites–Huffington Post and Metro UK— are spoofs, and impersonations of the real sites. For instance, while the original Huffington Post is domiciled at www.huffingtonpost.com (or huffingtonpost.co.uk for its UK edition),the fake site that announced President Buhari’s attempted suicide is domiciled at www.huffingtonpost-fm.com. For Metro UK, while the original site is domiciled at www.metro.co.uk, the fake site is domiciled at metro-uk.com.

The two sites are owned by Wild West Domains( as is obtainable by visiting whois.domaintools.com), and were registered in Arizona, USA. It is highly unlikely a coincidence that both sites are owned by the same hosts! The original Huffington Post domain (huffingtonpost.com) was created on the 25th of March, 2005, and owned by CSC CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC., while the real Metro UK was created on the 1st of August, 1996!

The fake Huffington Post site was registered on November 19, 2016, while the fake Metro UK site was registered on October 25, 2016. Meanwhile, the real sites have been in existence for years as can be seen in (2) above!

The investigative work done by Cable NG( with some extras by me), thus clearly shows that the news of President Buhari’s death and attempted suicide came from sites that cannot be trusted.

However, Nigerians have been here before. Between 2009-2010, the President Umar Yar’adua rumours persisted and for months, the true state of his health was not made known to the people. This was so much so that when news of his death was finally broken by the Presidency, many Nigerians felt that they had been lied to all along. This is one of the key reasons why the rumours surrounding President Muhammadu Buhari have refused to go. Having been here before, majority of Nigerians are suddenly apprehensive that the Yar’adua tape is rolling again.

Which brings me to the main point of this article; if the President is alive and well, what would it take for the Presidency to release concrete proof of this? Surely, it wouldn’t take much to shoot a two-minute video of him(perhaps chatting with a visitor) and share through his Twitter handle, thus dispelling all of the rumours once and for all. Why is it easier to go through the onerous task of trying to clampdown on those spreading the rumours, instead of spending three minutes to dispel the rumours with concrete facts? There is no point in saying; “it is not necessary, he does not have to answer to such baseless rumours”. There is every point in doing that, after all, he is owned by the people, who have every right to demand anything from him.

For a government that strode to power by exploiting the media, and one that grabs with both hands every opportunity to interact with the people through Social Media, the silence that has followed the rumours is almost deafening! Empty statements will not do for now, neither will posting a...

Credit: http://ikengachronicles.com/is-president-buhari-dead-nnaemeka-oruh/

Alive or dead! who e epp?

ehen tell me na....

If he dies, well let me. Keep quiet ist

Let them,all keep queit by Feb 6.,we all knws who saying d truth.

He's dead. But so far its all hush hush.

If he is still alive, then it can be said that Mr. Death does not know his job and need to be sacked soon...

From Sai Baba to Die Baba..

Buhari please I beg you in the name of God, die!!

wadetaw202:
http://usanews-tv.com/ch-breaking-news-nigerias-president-muhammadu-buhari-has-died/

How credible is that site

Naughtytboy:
How credible is that site

Well, I dont know

Just observing ..developments

Question for amadioha!