Western news agencies had reported that Nigerian and other African students have been threatened with deportation unless they enlist to take part in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The geo-political confrontation between the combine West and the Russian Federation is taking place across multiple domains. One of these is informational. Here, western media is relentless in spreading disinformation, propagandized narratives and outright lies to denounce and demonize Russia and anything Russian, especially to audiences in Africa and the global south, where support for Russia is waxing strong. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country is becoming a contested space. Kin to prevent pro-Russian sentiments from growing, the western media are beginning to fire salvos from their toolboxes of propagandized disinformation. A fortnight ago, reports originating from western media began circulating that Russia is refusing to extend visas to foreign students, many of them from Nigeria, except they agree to fight against Ukraine in the Russian Special Military Operation (SMO).
The American Bloomberg, which first carried to story, claimed that the reluctance of Russian authorities to extend the visas of Nigerian and African students who refuse to fight alongside the Russian army, is a continuation of the tactics first deployed by the defamed wagner mercenary group. Soon after, in lock-step, and obviously coordinated arrangement, every notable western media, main stream and social media outlets, began echoing the Bloomberg story which provided no concrete evidence except the usual “anonymous sources familiar with the matter” .
Some of the scho-chamber media houses even slanted the Bloomberg story, making it scarier and uglier, with claims that some Africans in Russia on work visas, have also been detained and forced to choose between deportation and fighting in the SMO. Others reported that some of the African students had to resort to bribing Russian officials, so asto be allowed to continue to stay in the country, and to avoid military service and summary deportation. To ensure that the report reaches the intended audience, it was syndicated to Nigerian media houses who, unwittingly reprinted and trended it on social media across the country.
However, the Ministry of foreign affairs has since denounced the report as utter bunkum and vile disinformation. In its statement, the ministry said “there has not been any reported case of conscription of Nigerian students nor indeed of other African students to fight” for Russia in the Ukraine conflict. “The newspaper reports are therefore false and misleading and should therefore be disregarded,”
Russia and Nigeria has a subsisting bilateral education scholarship agreement. And out of the over 2,000 Nigerian students presently enrolled in Russian universities, 500 are under the scholarship of the Russian government.
On inquiry, the Russia’s embassy in Abuja also debunked the story, describing it as western propagandized falsehood. The embassy thanked the Nigerian Ministry of foreign affairs for dismissing the western falsehood, saying it was “bewildered” to see the obviously false story in several Nigerian media outlets who cite the “dubious American news agency, Bloomberg.” as their source.
Bloomberg, the embassy said, has a “history of spreading anti-Russian fake news. Such news is not only false but also damages Russia-Nigeria educational cooperation by misleading numerous scholarship and grant applicants as well as their partners, who could be extremely concerned by such fakes,” . The embassy also stated that Nigerian students face “no difficulties” in extending their visas while studying in Russia, and informed that more than 30,000 African students come to study in Russia every year.