The government in Yenagoa, the capital of Nigerian state of Bayelsa, decided something needed to be done about rumours, so billboards have been erected around town and a committee has been named.
The campaign to end rumours in Bayelsa, President Goodluck Jonathan's home state, is now under way.
"What rumours are they scared of?" Simon Goladi, a 34-year-old sociology student, asked. "It's just a waste of resources," he added.
While it may seem odd that the state, located in the country's oil-producing Niger Delta region and with an impoverished population, has decided to spend energy and resources on stopping rumours, there is a precedent.
The previous Bayelsa governor had a special assistant on propaganda and rumour management, his spokesman Doifie Ola said.
Current governor Henry Seriake Dickson has opted for a 13-member committee, called the Public Information Management Committee.
"That points to the fact that rumours were a problem," Tarinyo Akono, a committee member who also works for the state information ministry, said of the previous government's decision to have an adviser on rumours.
"It's also important to check this because in the long run, the problem might overwhelm the people," Akono said.
So far the most visible signs of the campaign have been billboards depicting actors pretending to pass rumours to each other and urging residents to "say no to rumour mongers".
They have been erected at main intersections and phone numbers are listed for people to call "when in doubt".
Akono said that the numbers were to allow residents to verify whether information being passed on to them was true, but no one was answering at any of the three numbers earlier this week.
Niger Delta activist Anyakwee Nsirimovu, of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, condemned the campaign, saying he believed it was simply meant to protect the governor from criticism as well as hand out government positions to allies - a well-worn practice in Nigeria, where deep-rooted corruption has kept meaningful development out of reach in many cases. "They want to introduce censorship through the back door," he said.
But Akono says the anti-rumour campaign is legitimate and important.
Rumours are capable of breaking up marriages or causing false information to spread about violence that can lead to shops closing, he said. He insists that no one will be arrested for spreading rumours and that the campaign is merely meant to persuade people to resist the temptation to dish dirt.
The cost of the campaign is not yet clear. Akono said the budget is still being put together, though he specified that he will not get a salary.
But committee members would likely receive allowances to cover their expenses, he said.
"Nobody's limiting criticism, which is different from falsehood. If a politician is not doing well, I can say, 'my brother, you are not doing well.' That is different than spreading rumours," he said.
Nigerian drive to hush rumours
The government in Yenagoa, the capital of Nigerian state of Bayelsa, decided something needed to be done about rumours, so billboards have been erected around town and a committee has been named.
The campaign to end rumours in Bayelsa, President Goodluck Jonathan's home state, is now under way.
"What rumours are they scared of?" Simon Goladi, a 34-year-old sociology student, asked. "It's just a waste of resources," he added.
While it may seem odd that the state, located in the country's oil-producing Niger Delta region and with an impoverished population, has decided to spend energy and resources on stopping rumours, there is a precedent.
The previous Bayelsa governor had a special assistant on propaganda and rumour management, his spokesman Doifie Ola said.
Current governor Henry Seriake Dickson has opted for a 13-member committee, called the Public Information Management Committee.
"That points to the fact that rumours were a problem," Tarinyo Akono, a committee member who also works for the state information ministry, said of the previous government's decision to have an adviser on rumours.
"It's also important to check this because in the long run, the problem might overwhelm the people," Akono said.
So far the most visible signs of the campaign have been billboards depicting actors pretending to pass rumours to each other and urging residents to "say no to rumour mongers".
They have been erected at main intersections and phone numbers are listed for people to call "when in doubt".
Akono said that the numbers were to allow residents to verify whether information being passed on to them was true, but no one was answering at any of the three numbers earlier this week.
Niger Delta activist Anyakwee Nsirimovu, of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, condemned the campaign, saying he believed it was simply meant to protect the governor from criticism as well as hand out government positions to allies - a well-worn practice in Nigeria, where deep-rooted corruption has kept meaningful development out of reach in many cases. "They want to introduce censorship through the back door," he said.
But Akono says the anti-rumour campaign is legitimate and important.
Rumours are capable of breaking up marriages or causing false information to spread about violence that can lead to shops closing, he said. He insists that no one will be arrested for spreading rumours and that the campaign is merely meant to persuade people to resist the temptation to dish dirt.
The cost of the campaign is not yet clear. Akono said the budget is still being put together, though he specified that he will not get a salary.
But committee members would likely receive allowances to cover their expenses, he said.
"Nobody's limiting criticism, which is different from falsehood. If a politician is not doing well, I can say, 'my brother, you are not doing well.' That is different than spreading rumours," he said.
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