The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says there is no difference between bandits collecting taxes and area boys extorting commuters in the Southwest.

Mohammed’s remark on Thursday was in response to an article published by a London-based magazine, The Economist, titled ‘Insurgency, secessionism and banditry threaten Nigeria.’

The minister rebuked the magazine for claiming that terrorists had carved caliphates for themselves in the North-East.

According to him, the fact that bandits are imposing levies on communities does not mean they have taken control.

Speaking at a conference in Abuja on Thursday, Mohammed added that similar ‘undue tax collection’ takes place in many parts of the country, including in the South where touts commonly referred to as ‘area boys’, impose levies.

He added, “Do you know how many places in this country where area boys collect taxes? And there is no terrorism or banditry there. I don’t want to mention names.

“In many of our cities, they carve out their own territory. So, it is not indicative that bandits have taken over.

“No. I know many areas in Nigeria both in the South and the North where these kinds of things happen. So, it is not the same thing.”

Mohammed however cautioned the Nigerian media against glorifying negative reports published by their foreign counterparts.

“President Muhammadu Buhari won re-election by over three million votes. So, The Economist and other arms of the group are not infallible,” the minister said in relation to a prediction by the magazine’s sister company – The Economist Intelligence Unit – which in 2019 said the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, would win the election but the prediction turned out to be false.

“The Nigerian media does itself a great disservice by turning itself into an echo chamber of the foreign media. When The Economist reported its patently-wrong and badly-researched story, it was immediately amplified by the local media, without even interrogating its content? This is totally unconscionable!

“Again, at a time that Boko Haram and ISWAP are taking on each other in a mutually-destructive lockstep, and at a time that the terrorists are surrendering in droves as a result of heavy pounding by the military, it is wrong to say that Jihadists are carving out a Caliphate in the North-East, as The Economist reported.

“In any case, why would the Nigerian media become an echo chamber for a foreign newspaper that denigrates the Nigerian military and makes light of the sacrifices of our valiant troops? Would the British or American press regurgitate a report in the Nigerian press denigrating their militaries?”