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 assertion, Adolph Hitler added that propaganda has to be popular and 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 some online reporters  have agreed to do for their paymaster against the Honorable Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd) 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 don’t 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 negative  media campaign launched against the Interior Minister, Gen. Dambazau and his Ministry by some online media reporters and their allies, one does not require the services of a prophet to know why this is happening!
First, the media house 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 Dambazau was Army Chief between 2008 and 2010, Nigeria was facing serious cash crunch caused by 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. These banks were; 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 Dollar. So, if one billion naira was going out of the economy every month in an economy that would crumble if half a billion is removed from it, how come Nigeria did not collapse?
Secondly, it alleged that 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 and other online media  is why all these media attacks on Dambazau without extending it to the man who was there from 2007-2008,  if they are 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 handled all things that have to do with the pricing and monitoring of all government contracts while the Ministry of Defence awards the contracts..So, it had nothing to do with Dambazau! It was when Dambazau 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 costs to accuse Dambazau of wrongdoing are suffering from memory loss.
There are many  lies concocted by these reporters against Dambazau which many Nigerians have already dismissed as cock and bull stories, but the last one I want to address is the current big lie that as Interior Minister, the General bought a House in the United States of America.
From the report alone, the media house exposed itself as a hired propaganda machinery against Dambazau. For, it 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!  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 to misapply Walter Lippmann’s agenda setting theory of the media which says that the media have not only succeeded in putting pictures in people’s heads 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 has done the nation proud and is still doing it proud because of narrow and parochial interests is a mockery of media freedom!
Therefore, I urge all media houses to stop being pawns 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.

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*Uhara writes from Enugu