Hours before
President Muhammadu Buhari delivered his address to the nation on Monday night,
a version — full of errors — was already circulating on social media.
Although the version
he eventually read was different in some ways from the draft, presidency
officials are livid over the leak.
The president’s
address is usually released to the media while the broadcast is on, but the
leaked draft was in circulation long before the broadcast.
In the draft, the
lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and the federal capital territory (FCT) was to be
lifted on Saturday, May 2, 2020.
But in the
broadcast, the president moved the date to Monday, May 4.
Significantly, while
the president announced a total lockdown for two weeks in Kano state, the draft
only said “the total lockdown recently announced by the State Government shall
remain enforced… for the full duration”.
It appears the
leaked version was copied from a Microsoft Word document with the original text
and edits included, leading to the repetition of many words and phrases.
All these had been
cleaned up in the final version read by the president.
TheCable reports
that the draft was prepared by a member of the presidential task force on
COVID-19 and sent to the office of the secretary to the government of the
federation (SGF).
Boss Mustapha is
both the SGF and chairman of the task force.
All fingers are now
pointing at the SGF office for the leak, although there is also suspicion that
the email of the writer might have been hacked.
A few days ago, a
memo to Mustapha by the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) was also scanned and
leaked on social media.
In the letter, the
forum made recommendations on the easing of lockdowns nationwide.
Some of the
recommendations — including use of face mask in public, restriction of interstate
movement and imposition of dusk to dawn curfew — were adopted by the president.
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