Nigeria Denies Time Magazine Report

Nigeria today refuted a Times Magazine report titled "The Whole Truth" and written by Stephen Faris that its officials offered bribe to journalists who attended a recent press conference called to protest bias coverage of some events in the country by an international news organization.

The refuttal came from the report of investigation ordered by President Olusegun Obasanjo into the veracity of the Times Magazine story.

The investigation found out that only the sum of Fifty Thousand naira (N50,000.00) and not Four Hundred dollars ($400.00) as claimed in the report was given to journalists for their transportation and incidental expenses as expressly stated in their letter of invitation to the meeting.

The report also confirmed that providing honorarium to invited journalists is a time honoured practice in Nigeria not restricted to government agencies alone but also international organizations including the USIS, United Nations agencies and even international media organizations.

According to the report, twenty two foreign correspondents attended the interactive session and only two declined the offer on the spot on the ground that they were in Abuja for other assignments and had been provided for while one later returned his implying that majority of the correspondents present accepted the propriety of the reimbursement of their expenses by the Ministry. The report discovered that Stephen Faris the author of the Time Magazine story was not among the correspondents who attended the session and wondered how he got the story of the alleged bribery.

The report concluded that the allegation in the article was unfounded and all evidence confirmed that the government officials involved acted above board.

F.K. Martins
Information Attaché
Embassy of Nigeria
April 24, 2002.