Home Blog Page 158

Did the Bank of Kigali appoint an Igbo man Obinna Ukwuani as Chief Digital Officer?

Olugbenga ADANIKIN
-
0
Did the Bank of Kigali appoint an Igbo man Obinna Ukwuani as Chief Digital Officer?

ON September 1, Unu Amaro Kam Siri Kwado @AfamDeluxo made a post that Obinna Ukwuani an Igbo man has been appointed the Chief Digital Officer of the Bank of Kigali, in  Rwanda.

The post had other assertions that another Nigerian, Kaycee Madu,  was appointed Minister of Justice in Canada and that an Igbo man stand a better chance of succeeding outside Nigeria.

The tweet reads: “Bank of Kigali has appointed an Igbo man, Obinna Ukwuani, as it Chief Digital Officer. Few days ago, Kaycee Madu, was appointed as Minister of Justice in Canada. As an Igbo man, you stand a better chance of reaching greater heights outside Nigeria.”

The tweet has pulled over 2,000 likes, 502 retweets and  over 60 comments as at press time.

The claim about the appointment of Obinna  was also made by @AfricaFactsZone which has garnered over 2,300 likes.

 

THE CLAIMS:

Claim 1: Bank of Kigali has appointed an Igbo man, Obinna Ukwuani as its Chief Digital Officer.

Claim 2: A Nigerian, Kaycee Madu was appointed as Minister of Justice in Canada

Claim 3: Igbos stand better chance of succeeding outside Nigeria.


THE FINDINGS:

Claim 1

The FactCheckHub visited the Twitter handle of  Obinna Ukwuani @oukwuani and found out that the new appointment – Chief Digital Officer, Bank of Kigali was updated on Ukwuani’s profile.

He also included previous organisations he had worked with such as Paystack, Nova Pioneer and the school he attended– Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Aside from the update on his social media account, A report announcing the new appointment was published by The New Times – a news medium in Rwanda. He was featured on the business section. His responsibilities, the report said would include, “leading the digital factory division of the bank, for product innovation and development in digital banking.”

In the verification process, The FactCheckHub observed The New Times newspaper tagged the handle of  the Bank of Kigali @BankofKigali while tweeting the published article and the bank retweeted it.

In addition, Ukwuani also  acknowledged some of the congratulatory wishes  made on Twitter  including that of Unu Amaro – the claim under review.

The FactCheckHub contacted Ukwuani to verify if he is an Igbo man as asserted and he said “I was born and raised in the United States. My home in Nigeria is Ngwo, Udi, Enugu. That is where my name is from,” he stated in response to a Direct Message sent to his social media handle.

Enugu is a state in Eastern Nigeria where the people are Igbos.

 

Claim 2

The claim that Nigerian Kaycee Madu was appointed as Minister of Justice in Canada trended when the news came out, with several persons, including media organisations wrongly attributing him as Canada’s Minister of Justice.

The FactCheckHub did a  verification  that found out that  Kaycee Madu is the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General of Alberta, a province in Canada.

 

Claim 3

The claim that as an Igbo man, you stand a better chance of reaching greater heights outside Nigeria is an opinion with no verifiable data yet.

 

THE VERDICT:

The claim that the Bank of Kigali has appointed an Igbo man, Obinna Ukwuani as its Chief Digital Officer is TRUE.

The claim that a Nigerian, Kaycee Madu was appointed as Minister of Justice in Canada is TRUE. He is however the Minister of Justice in Alberta, a province in Canada.

The claim that Igbos stand better chance of succeeding outside Nigeria is an opinion  and does not have any verifiable data.

 

Will Nigeria’s unemployed population rank 9th most populous country in Africa?

Niyi Oyedeji
-
0
Will Nigeria’s unemployed population rank 9th most populous country in Africa?

A post on Twitter claimed that Nigeria’s unemployed population can make up a country that will rank the 9th most populous country in Africa.

The claim was made by a twitter user @Chxta on August 20.

He asserted further that Nigeria will still be the most populated country even if its unemployed people are moved out of the country to create another country.

The tweet reads: “If we take unemployed people in #Nigeria to create their own country, it would be number 9 in #Africa, and the rest of Nigeria would still be the most populated on the continent.”

THE CLAIMS:

From the tweet, these two claims were established:

Claim 1: That Nigeria’s unemployed population would rank number 9 most populous country in Africa.

Claim 2: That Nigeria would still remain the most populous country when the unemployed population is excluded.

 

THE FINDINGS:

Claim 1:

In a bid to verify the claim, The FactCheckHub first checked the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website for the data on Nigeria’s labour statistics to determine the total number of unemployed people in the country.

According to the latest statistics on Nigeria’s labour force released by the NBS for 2nd quarter (Q2) of 2020, Nigeria currently has 21,764,617 unemployed people.

A screenshot from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Labor Force Statistics 2020 Q3.

The NBS categorised the unemployed people under two types; the unemployed people working between 1-19 hours and those doing practically nothing.  Those working between 1-19 hours made up 12,395,364 of the unemployed population while those doing nothing are 9,369,253.

The FactCheckHub checked the top ten most populous  countries in Africa to determine if the number of unemployed people in Nigeria – 21.8 million –  can make the 9th most populous country on the continent.

The FactCheckHub checked the Worldometer – a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics and the World Bank for data on African countries and their population.

The World Bank data as at 2019 for the ten most populated countries in Africa are Nigeria — 200,963,599, Ethiopia — 112,078,730, Egypt — 100,388,073, Dr. Congo — 86,790,567, South Africa — 58,558,270, Tanzania — 58,005,463, Kenya — 52,573,973, Uganda —44,269,594, Algeria — 43,053,054, and Sudan — 42,813,238.

World Bank data showing 10 most populous African countries.

As at August 25, 2020,  Worldometer data on the population of African countries  had the a higher figure for each country and with each one maintaining it’s position except for South Africa and Tanzania that swapped position.

From the data, Nigeria ranked the most populous country on the continent with 206,139,589 people, followed by Ethiopia that has 114,963,588 population,  Egypt is the third most populous country in Africa with 102,334,404 population,  DR Congo 4th with 89,561,403 other most populous countries in the continent are; Tanzania, 5th with 59,734,218 population, South Africa 6th with 59,308,690, Kenya 7th with 53,771,296, Uganda 8th with 45,741,007, Algeria 9th with 43,851,044 and Sudan 10th with 43,849,260.

A screenshot of African countries population from Worldometer

From the data gotten from the World Bank and Worldometer, the 9th most populous African country is Algeria with  43,053,054 and 43,851,044 in 2019 and 2020 respectively.  This therefore means that the number of unemployed people in Nigeria which stands  at 21,764,617,  when made into a country would not be the 9th most populous country in Africa, which makes the claim to be FALSE.

Claim 2:

In a bid to check if Nigeria would still remain the most populous country if number of employed people in the country is removed, The FactCheckHub checked  the number of  Nigeria’s current population, which is 206,139,589 according to 2020 Worldometer  ranking and 200,963,599 according to the 2019 World Bank ranking.

The FactCheckhub then deducted the number of Nigeria’s current unemployed population, which according to the latest statistics on Nigeria’s labour force stands at 21,764,617 and the difference is  184,374,972 and 179,198,982 respectively. This is  still more than the total number of the second most populous country in Africa.

According to Worldometer and World Bank rankings, Ethiopia is the 2nd most populous country in Africa with 114,963,588 and 112,078,730 populations respectively. If compared with Nigeria’s population excluding the number of unemployed people, Nigeria would still be the most populous country in Africa.

THE VERDICT:

From the information  presented above, the claim that Nigeria’s unemployed population would rank number 9 most populous country in Africa is FALSE.

Also, the claim that Nigeria would still remain the most populous country in Africa when the unemployed population is excluded is TRUE. 

Are 90 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty?

Olugbenga ADANIKIN
-
0
Are 90 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty?

 A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, said that 90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty.

The claim was published on Twitter on August 27, 2020.

In one of the series of tweets, Moghalu, a former Presidential Candidate, on the platform of Young Progressive Party (YPP) in the country’s 2019 general election wrote: “90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty and the country is essentially bankrupt not because we don’t have brilliant economists, but because our politics and leadership are a grand fraud. Prosperity requires nationhood, first, followed by strong, effective institutions”.

 

THE CLAIM:

That 90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty.

 

THE FINDINGS:  

The United Nations defines Extreme poverty, also known as Absolute or Abject poverty as, “a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.” This description is  contained in chapter two, item 19, page 38 of the  World Summit for Social Development WSSD 1995 agreement, held in Copenhagen.

A 2016 World Bank report done in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) titled ‘Ending Extreme Poverty: a Focus on Children’ benchmark extreme poverty as  those living on less than $1.90 per day.

The World Bank Commission on Global Poverty also defined extreme poverty as those living below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day.

The international poverty line is the universal standard for measuring global poverty that helps measure the number of people living in extreme poverty  while comparing poverty levels between countries.

Poverty lines across countries differs as such the  revision of the purchasing power parities (ppp) in 2017 by the International Comparison Program (ICP) brought about an array of benchmarks, this grouped countries into low, mid and high income.

However the  international poverty line was still pegged at $1.90 per day while  lower middle Income class poverty line has a value of US$3.20 and upper middle income class poverty line has a value of US$5.50.

Meanwhile, in 2018, the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC-based non-profit organisation had projected that Nigeria would surpass India’s 73 million citizens living in extreme poverty. As of then, extreme poverty in Nigeria, the institute noted was ‘growing by six people every minute.’

By June 2018, Nigeria became poverty capital of the world  with about 86.9 million people living in extreme poverty.

A screenshot of World Poverty Clock taken on August 30, 2020, showing the percentage of people living below the poverty line $1.90 in Nigeria.

Checking Moghalu’s claim , the World Poverty Clock, – a web tool produced by World Data Lab – shows  half  -50%- of Nigeria’s population are living in extreme poverty based on the $1.90 benchmark.

The result says “102, 125, 917 people living in extreme poverty,”  and of these number “51,623,790 are males, while 50,502,127 females.”

As at August 30, the tool placed Nigeria’s population to be over 205 million (205,323,504).

Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics gives a slightly higher number at 206 million (206,139,589) as at August 30.

A look at the  World bank ‘Poverty & Equity Data Portal’ poverty headcount ratio shows that Nigeria has a record of having half of its population living in extreme poverty.

The portal shows that 53.5% of the population were living below the poverty line in 2003 and in 2009. It gives Nigeria’s population as 190.9 million and 195.9 million in 2017 and  2018 respectively.

This implies that the figure provided by Moghalu is lower to the current figure.

World Bank poverty and equity data portal showing Nigeria’s poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day for 2003 and 2009.

 

THE VERDICT: 

Based on the information presented above the claim that 90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty is MOSTLY TRUE, this is because the figure is higher. More than 90 million Nigerians live in extreme poverty.

 

Did Sale Mamman raise $1.6billion for TREP within one year as Nigeria’s Minister of Power?

Olugbenga ADANIKIN
-
0
Did Sale Mamman raise $1.6billion for TREP within one year as Nigeria’s Minister of Power?

Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Engr. Sale Mamman, had on August 25, 2020, made a tweet thread to mark his one year anniversary in office. The tweets were accompanied with infographs detailing his achievements since his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2019.

One of the infographs with a  screaming headline “Key achievements of Federal Ministry of Power under Engr. Sale Mamman”  and  a rider headline “1 year anniversary” presented the achievements in two categories – Infrastructural Alignment reflecting the Siemens Deal and the Transmission Enhancement Programme under which it states that the ministry working with key partners raised $1.6 billion for the ongoing (electricity) Transmission, Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP).

“Federal Ministry of Power working with key partners; World Bank, AfDB, JICA raised $1.6 billion for Transmission on Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) ongoing” it stated.

It went on to delineate five projects under the TREP. This, alongside other achievements, was attributed as part of  Mamman’s  accomplishment within his first year in office.

 

THE CLAIM:

That the Ministry of Power under Engr. Sale Mamman raised $1.6 billion for the ongoing Transmission, Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) bewteen August 2019 to August 2020.

 

THE FINDINGS:

TREP is a strategy which is expected to rehabilitate and expand the nation’s (electricity) transmission infrastructure in order to stabilize the grid for optimum performance, in line with international best practices, through massive investment. TREP is also expected to expand the capacity of the Transmission Grid to 20,000MW by 2021, says a Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) document on the project.

In 2018, the Managing Director of TCN,  Usman Mohammed, when he presented the company’s 2018 scorecard to State House correspondents in Abuja, said “We have established transmission, rehabilitation and expansion programme. The main objective of this is to rehabilitate, stabilise and expand the delivery capacity of TCN to at least 20,000 megawatts by 2021 and we are on track”.

This was prior to the commencement of Mamman’s tenure as the Minister of Power.  He was appointed by President Buhari in August, 2019. He took over the Ministry of Power from Babatunde Fashola, who was the then Minister overseeing the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing (FMPWH) during the first tenure of the democratically-elected Buhari presidency.

In addition, the TCN published a scorecard titled “Milestones from February 2017 to September 2018,”    which shows detail of the funding support two years before Mamman became the minister.

The $1.6 billion donor support was from the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) while the French Development Agency also supported with a $170 million commitment for the Abuja Transmission project.

A screenshot of page 10 from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) document titled “Milestones from February 2017 to September 2018.”

The document which stated that the TCN Management in February 2017 under UG Mohammed, established the  (TREP) went on to delineate the status of implementation of donor-funded projects as at September 2018.

It states that the  “Abuja Transmission Ring Scheme is financed by the French Development Agency ($170 million). The procurement process has reached the final stage; two contracts for the lines have been signed and the remaining lots for substation projects have been evaluated and submitted to AFD …”

The “Lagos/Ogun Transmission Project financed by Japanese International Corporation Agency JICA ($200 million). The project which was inherited from past management of TCN has been completely scoped, designed, with their EIA, RAP and ESMP completed. However, the compensation amount was very high, initially put at N8billion and later reduced to about N5billion. The Governor of Ogun State has been asked to assist with the compensation for the RoW for the Ogun/Lagos Transmission Project”. On this Mamman infograph had “$200” without the “million” as the amount, this might be a typographical error.

The “Nigeria Electricity Transmission Access Project (NETAP) financed by the World Bank ($486 Million). The project started with advanced procurement in 2017 and was approved by the board of the World Bank in February 2018. The procurement of the project has reached advanced stage but it is yet to become effective as it is still awaiting approval and Legal Opinion of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice”

The “Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project (NTEP) will be financed by the African Development Bank ($410 million).”

The “Northern Corridor Transmission Project to be financed by French Development Agency and EU ($245 million and €25 million). The appraisal of this project was completed on September 28, 2018 and is expected to be approved by the Board of AFD and EU in November 2018. ”

From the TCN documents, it can be deduced that even though plans were on ground, not all the fundings were available as $210 million was approved by the AfDB for NTEP in November, 2019.

This invariably means that the minister cannot wholly claim this as his achievement within the one year period under review.

Although $1.6billion (dollars) is the fund for the ongoing TREP project, it was not totally raised by the Mamman-led ministry between August 2019 and August 2020, which makes the minister’s claim misleading.

 

THE VERDICT: 

The claim that the Ministry of Power under Engr. Sale Mamman raised $1.6 billion for the ongoing Transmission, Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP)  between August 2019 to August 2020 is MISLEADING.

Claim that Nigerian-born Kaycee Madu is Canada’s Minister of Justice is MISLEADING

Opeyemi Kehinde
-
0
Claim that Nigerian-born Kaycee Madu is Canada’s Minister of Justice is MISLEADING

A tweet by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) via its official Twitter handle: @nidcom_gov had on August 26 referred to the Nigerian-born Kaycee Madu as Canada’s Minister of Justice.

The tweet, which was posted at 8:51PM Nigerian time on Wednesday August 26, 2020, had garnered 666 Likes, 260 retweets and 70 comments as at 4:00PM the following day, Thursday.

The tweet reads: “Congratulations to a Nigerian born Kaycee Madu @KayceeMaduYEG who becomes Canada’s Minister Of Justice.”

Similarly, a Nigerian newspaper, the Vanguard, also reported  albeit erroneously, Madu’s appointment as Canada’s Minister of Justice. The report headline reads ” Nigerian-born, Kaycee Madu, appointed Canada’s Minister of Justice.”  The lead paragraph of the report also  referred to him “Canada’s new Minister of Justice”.

 

THE CLAIM:

That Nigerian-born, Kaycee Madu, has been appointed as Canada’s Minister of Justice.

A screenshot of the misleading report by Vanguard Newspaper.

 

THE FINDINGS:

Checks by the FactCheckHub revealed that as at Thursday, August 27, 2020, David Lametti is still the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

Screenshot of David Lametti’s profile on the official website of the Department of Justice of the Canadian government.

Parts of Lametti’s profile, as stated on the official website of the Department of Justice of the Canadian government, reads “…Minister Lametti served as a parliamentary secretary from 2015 until 2019, when he was appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.”

Similarly, a check carried out by the FactCheckHub shows Lametti’s name and profile among the current cabinet member of Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister.

Further findings by the FactCheckHub indicated that Kaycee Madu was appointed Alberta’s Minister of Justice and Solicitor General, a province in Canada – contrary to the claim by the NIDCOM’s tweet and Vanguard’s report.

According to the official Canadian government’s website, Canada is currently made up of ten provinces and three territories.

Also, a congratulatory tweet from Doug Downey, a Parliamentarian for Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, and Attorney General of Ontario (Canada), via his Twitter handle: @douglasdowney, referred to Madu as “Alberta’s new Minister of Justice and Solicitor General.

Madu’s profile has been updated on the website of the Alberta’s provincial government as its minister of Justice and Solicitor General.

The FactCheckHub also reports that several Nigerian media including The Guardian (Nigeria), The Cable and Premium Times reported Madu’s appointment as Alberta’s new Minister of Justice and Solicitor General.

 

THE VERDICT:

From all information available, NIDCOM’s tweet and Vanguard’s news reports are MISLEADING.

 

*This report was updated on 28/08/2020 with the second to last paragraph before the verdict.

Is Nigeria safer than five years ago as claimed by its Army Chief?

Opeyemi Kehinde
-
0
Is Nigeria safer than five years ago as claimed by its Army Chief?

Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, had on Sunday, July 26, 2020 claimed that the country is safer than it was five years ago.

He disclosed this at a sit-out with Wounded Soldiers in Action (WIA) in Kaduna, The Nation newspaper reported.

The WIAs are military officers and men injured during various operations against insurgency who are receiving treatment at the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna.

Buratai’s claim has generated reactions from the public on various media and social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

 

THE CLAIM:

“I am proud you have made the impact that some of our colleagues and Nigerians are safe and I am equally happy that we are living in peace and Nigeria is safer now than we had five years ago,” Buratai said in the news report.

 

THE FINDINGS:

Data obtained by The FactCheckHub from the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) authored by John Campbell, a Conflict and Security expert and Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies, shows that there has been an increase in insecurity in the nation, which has resulted into deaths of the citizenry, contrary to Buratai’s claim.

For instance, a total of 863 incidents which led to loss of 6,205 lives occurred between January 2020 and June 2020, compared to 490 incidents from January 2015 to June 2015 which recorded 8,047 deaths as a result of insecurity. The data shows an increase of 372 insecurity-related incidents within the same six-month period when compared with that of five years earlier, though there was reduction in the number of deaths recorded.

Also, the NST data shows that the Boko Haram insurgency tops the list of causes of insecurity-related deaths in Nigeria between January 2015 and June 2015, followed by Kidnapping, Banditry and Sectarian violence respectively, among others, within the same period.

Whereas, between January 2020 and June 2020, Kidnapping and Banditry top the insecurity list, followed by Sectarian violence and the Boko Haram insurgency.

The FackCheckHub reports that the NST is a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme, which documents violence in Nigeria that is motivated by political, economic, or social grievances. The data are based on weekly surveys of Nigerian and international media.

Though it noted on its website that “relying on press reports of violence presents methodological limitations as there is a dearth of accurate reporting across certain regions; death tolls are imprecise, and accounts of incidents vary, the NST makes every effort to collect information from multiple sources.”

In addition, using a 12-month range,  the NST data shows that a total of 1,574 incidents which led to loss of 8,845 lives happened from July 2019 to June 2020. Whereas, a total of 15,106 people died from 931 incidents which occurred from July 2014 to June 2015.

Irrespective of the range use – 6 or 12 months – the number of insecurity incidents in 2020 is higher than five years ago.

Further findings by The FactCheckHub  also corroborated Campbell’s report of heightened insecurity in Nigeria when compared to five years ago.

A report published on Friday, July 24, 2020 by the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPs) – a consortium of three non-profit organisations (NGOs) – which include the Norwegian Refugee Council, Mercy Corps and Save the Children revealed that violent attacks especially by bandits in Nigeria’s North-West region has led to death and displacement of citizens in their thousands.

“Attacks have included shooting and killing, cattle rustling, kidnapping, rape, torching of entire villages, and looting of valuables, and the numbers of fatalities and displaced people have continued to rise,” the report stated.

The six states of the North West, according to the report, are Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Niger and Kebbi.

In addition, the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, July 31, 2020 also expressed worries over rising insecurity, contrary to the Army Chief’s claim, saying “What is coming up in the northwest and north central is very, very disturbing indeed,” The Guardian (Nigeria) newspaper reported.

The data from NST covers cases of insecurity across the country and not all of these cases fall under the purview of the Army – Military, but incidents of insecurity – the state of being open to danger or threat – have increased across the country.

The country is witnessing a heightened spate of banditry, kidnapping among others.

 

THE VERDICT:

From the information presented above, Buratai’s claim that ‘Nigeria is safer now than we had five years ago’ is MOSTLY FALSE.  This is because even though death fatalities reduced  in the period under review, there is a rise in insecurity incidents.

 

*This report was updated on 27/08/2020 with the two paragraphs before the verdict.

Did Lai Mohammed say the Igbos are responsible for Nigeria’s underdevelopment?

Olugbenga ADANIKIN
-
1
Did Lai Mohammed say the Igbos are responsible for Nigeria’s underdevelopment?

A CLAIM has been shared repeatedly on social media and blogs that the Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has accused the Igbo people of being responsible for the country’s underdevelopment.

On August 18,  an online platform, Ecocitygist  published a variation of the report which states that the minister  said the Igbos, but not the Fulanis were behind the nation’s predicament.

“I want to specifically channel my statement to Igbos in South East. I’m making this statement because it is so clear that they are the ones who will never want to hear anything good about Nigeria but rather will continue to glamor [clamour] for succession [secession]. I think it’s a sign of wickedness to become an enemy to your own country,” part of the report reads.

The minister reportedly made the assertions to journalists after a closed-door meeting with other cabinet members of the current President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.

Similar reports were also carried by  9newsng, Omokoshaban, Eagle Media TV Nigeria as well as Biafra Unite YouTube page which has over 33,000 subscribers.

The particular post on the YouTube channel has garnered 12, 653 views as at August 21.

 

THE CLAIM:

That Lai Mohammed said the Igbo people are the ones hindering Nigeria’s progress.

THE FINDINGS:

A close look at the report shows that it was syndicated across the different blogs most likely by the same person or group, this is because the same errors can be found across the reports on different  platforms. Errors like the use of ‘Glamor’ instead of ‘Clamour’, ‘Succession’ instead of  ‘Secession’  and so on.

Also the report was not published by any mainstream media organisation.  While 9newsng reported the story in such a manner as if the minister granted an interview after the purported meeting with other ministers, Ecocitytvnews presented the report as a press statement.

The report also stated that “Lai Mohammed made these statement after his indoor meetings today in Abuja with other ministers concerning how to build up Nigerian economy” , the use of ‘HIS indoor meeting’ here connotes that the meeting was summoned  or chaired by Mohammed.

This poses a red flag because while peculiar situations may warrant the minister to invite selected members of the cabinet for a meeting, the chances of Mohammed summoning other cabinet members over matters bothering on Nigeria’s economy is almost impossible. This is because President Buhari has a Special Adviser on Economic Matters and there is also a Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) which Mohammed is not the chairman.

In addition Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President chairs the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC)  set-up due to the impact of the Coronavirus  (COVID-19).

More so,  the Federal Executive Council (FEC) holds regular meetings involving all the cabinet members including Mohammed, where issues of national development and economic matters are discussed. as such a Minister of Information and Culture is unlikely to be chairing or summoning a  meeting over economic matters.

Furthermore, the post on YouTube had no video or audio of Mohammed making the claim, It was mainly a collage of file footage put together over a narration.

The FactCheckHub reached out to Joel Attah, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Federal Ministry of Information and  Culture to verify the statement attributed to the minister,

“Nothing like that. Everything is fiction,” Attah replied in a phone conversation.

“There was no press statement issued and the minister did not meet with cabinet members. Nothing like that happened,” he reiterated.

A media assistant to  the Minister of Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi also debunked the claim. He described it as fake news.

Adeyemi said “I can confirm to you that this story never emanated from us. It is the figment of the author’s imagination and a classic example of fake news.”

On August 24,  The FactCheckHub contacted 9newsng.com  via its twitter handle @9newsng to verify source of the claim but no response was gotten as at the time of  this report.

The official behind Igbo Volume, one of the platforms that also published the report was contacted via a United Arab Emirate (UAE) mobile number +971  55 508 6536 that was on their  Facebook page. The call was made 2:13 pm, Lagos, Nigeria time.

He simply asked the reporter to call back in two hours. He said he was at work as of the time he was contacted.

At about 4:14 pm, another call was put to his line but he told the FactCheckHub he was just rounding up from work. He asked the reporter to call back again in one hour, which was done.

At 5:51 pm he responded. He said he just sourced for news from the internet and publish on his Facebook page.

“When we see information online, we just publish it like that,” he responded in a phone interview.

Though, he claimed to have sourced the controversial report from Channels TV, no such story was found on the TV station website.

Meanwhile, he had attributed the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in the viral Facebook post, it was also not found on the NTA’s website.

He was then asked to send the link from the purported Channels TV report. He agreed but he did not send.

 

THE VERDICT: 

Based on the information presented above,  the claim is FALSE.

Did Nigeria lose over 18 million jobs under Buhari’s presidency?

Niyi Oyedeji
-
0
Did Nigeria lose over 18 million jobs under Buhari’s presidency?

An image has been retweeted over a thousand times alongside a claim that 18.8 million Nigerians have lost their jobs since Muhammadu Buhari became the country’s president in May 2015.

The claim was made by a twitter user @Chxta on August 16.

The tweet features a graph and a caption which put forward that 54.4 million Nigerians were in full time employment as at May 29, 2015 and that currently, that number has reduced to 35.6 million people.

The tweet also  alluded that 18.8 million people lost their jobs within the last 5 years.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Confirmed: TRUE, 18.8 million Nigerians have lost their jobs so far under the Buhari’s led administration

A post shared by FactCheckHub (@thefactcheckhub) on

The tweet reads: “As of 29 May 2015, Nigeria had 54.4 million people in full time work. Today, Nigeria has only 35.6 million people working. Buhari has destroyed 18.8 million jobs in just over five years.”

 

THE CLAIMS:

From the tweet, these three claims were established:

Claim 1. That Nigeria had 54.4 million people in full time job as at May 29, 2015.

Claim 2. That Nigeria currently (August 2020) has 35.6 million people working full time.

Claim 3: That 18.8 million full time jobs was lost within 5 five years under President Buhari’s administration.

 

THE FINDINGS:

Claim 1

In a bid to verify the claim, The FactCheckhub checked the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website for the data on Nigeria’s labour statistics as at May 29, 2015.

May 29 falls on the 2nd quarter (Q2),  The FactCheckHub could not find the 2015  NBS report, however data for the country’s labour force for the 2015 was included in the  Q1 –Q3 2017 unemployment report.

In the report, it was stated that approximately  55.7 million people were fully employed in the 2015-Q1, 54.4 million people in 2015- Q2, 55.2 million people in 2015-Q3 and 54.5 million  in 2015-Q4.

The data shows that 54.4 million people were employed as at May 29, 2015 which makes the claim TRUE.

 

A screenshot from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Labor Force Statistics Vol. 1: Unemployment and Underemployment Report (Q1-Q3 2017).

 

Claim 2

The FactCheckHub checked the NBS website for the 2020 data on Nigeria’s labour force. From the data for the 2020-Q2, it was stated that approximately 35.6 million people are fully employed out of the 80.3 million labour force population. This also makes the claim that only 35.6 million Nigerians are fully employed as at 2020 TRUE.

A screenshot from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Labor Force Statistics 2020 Q2.

Claim 3

President Buhari was sworn-in on May 29, 2015, which implies that he has  spent over five years as Nigeria’s president.

To ascertain if  18.8 million jobs were lost as alluded  in the tweet, The FactCheckHub compared the number of Nigerians fully employed as at May 29, 2015 to the current number of Nigerians that are fully employed as at June 2020.  The use of June was selected because the NBS report is presented quarterly. The data for August will be in the the 2020 Q3 report which ends in September.

The difference between the number of people who were fully employed as May 2015  – 54.4 million and as at June 2020  – 35.6 million is 18.8 million.

While it cannot be determined if the 18.8 million people have lost their jobs  or moved from full time employment to other form of employments within the period under review, the NBS records shows that there is a difference of 18.8 million in the number of people who were fully employed in the country in comparison to  five years ago which makes the claim  TRUE. 

The NBS refers to fully employed people as people who work forty hours and above.

THE VERDICT: 

From the data presented above, the claim  that Nigeria had 54.4 million people in full time job as at May 29, 2015  is TRUE.

The claim that Nigeria currently (August 2020) has 35.6 million people in full time jobs is TRUE.

The claim that 18.8 million full time jobs were lost within 5 five years under President Buhari’s administration is TRUE.

FALSE claim circulates online in Nigeria discouraging public from using rival ATMs

Olugbenga ADANIKIN
-
0
FALSE claim circulates online in Nigeria discouraging public from using rival ATMs

A WhatsApp message forwarded  and shared numerous times in August 2020 claim that banks have advised their customers to avoid the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) of rival banks.

The post which was shared across multiple groups and as direct messages in Nigeria states that “Bankers advised that people should not use ATM of other banks, other than their bank for any transaction for now”.

An additional paragraph claimed that Interswitch, a digital payment platform in the country had already stopped operations, as such “issues that comes while using another bank ATM will not be resolved till they resume after COVID-19”.

Members of the public were advised to withdraw money only from the ATMs of their respective financial institutions.

The post which is titled “Important Information” also asked people to tell their neighbours, family and friends.

 

THE CLAIMS: 

Claim 1: Banks (bankers) have advised  people against use of rival banks ATMs

Claim 2:  Interswitch has stopped operations.

The viral message

 

THE FINDINGS: 

Claim 1

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines on operations of electronic payment channels guiding activities of commercial banks in Nigeria prohibits such restrictions where customers are solely limited to patronise particular ATM machines.

The public has the liberty to patronise any ATM positioned in any bank or a public space – in as much as  the ATM card is valid and the issuer recognised by the CBN.

More so, the guideline warned commercial banks of any form of discrimination on the use of ATM cards or issuers.

“All ATMs to accept cards issued in Nigeria under the CBN regulations for any card-based value-added service made available on the machine,” the CBN guideline released in June 2020 stated.

In addition the 44-page document states that “no card scheme shall discriminate against any ATM owner or acquirer” while adding that all ATMs should dispense all Naira denominations.

But, beyond the documented guidelines, Isaac Okorafor, Director, Corporate Communications of the CBN, in a phone interview with The FactCheckHub dismissed the claim.

“This is not true,” Okorafor stated.

“No bank has said so and I know Interswitch and other switches are working. So this must be fake news” the CBN official explained.

 

Claim 2

Although the Interswitch group did not respond to numerous communication from The FactCheckHub,  a tweet made by its support handle @iswsupport on August 4, noted that the organisation is still operating.

“Interswitch’s operations continue to function in spite of the pandemic. You can make transfers, withdrawals, pay on the Quickteller and use your verve card,” the payment system tweeted. “

It added that all our services are working and issues will be resolved promptly.

Earlier in April, the Twitter handle of Quickteller, a payment product of Interswitch had debunked a similar variation of the claim in question. The tweet which was accompanied by several screenshots of the claim termed it as “fake news”.

THE VERDICT:

From the information presented above both claims are FALSE.

 

Fact Guage Metre Ratings

Trending video alleging Somalia’s president in fisticuffs with deputy is FALSE

FactCheckHub
-
0
Trending video alleging Somalia’s president in fisticuffs with deputy is FALSE

By Olayinka SHEHU.

A TRENDING video posted on microblogging site, Twitter by Nana Kwame Ahoufe, a Ghanaian Television presenter that the president of Somalia and his vice-president are engaged in fisticuffs is false.

Nana’s, twitter profile states that he is a TV Director & TV Presenter at Citi TV, a privately owned multi-platform network based in Adabraka, Accra.

He had tweeted the video with an accompanying text that read, “The President of Somalia and his Vice President in fisticuffs! Exchanging executive blows for the good of their country maybe?,” he wrote on Twitter.

The tweet has since gone viral. Nana’s 11 seconds video has now been viewed more than 2000 times, with 701 retweets and comments, 439 likes.

The video has also been picked up and published by some blogs in Nigeria such as Elombah News. Vanguard Newspaper also reported it with a headline, “A President, his Vice, ‘exchange blows’ in public”.

THE FINDINGS:

To verify the authenticity of the video, The ICIR did Google and YouTube searches and also used google translate in searching for the meaning of Golaha Wakiilada and did a google search on the flag that appeared on the video.

Golaha Wakiilada means of House of Representatives in Somali language, which is the lower house of the de facto state of Somaliland.

The green and red flag with a black star that appeared in the video is that of Somaliland.

Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is a self-declared state, internationally considered to be part of Somalia.

Somaliland is a breakaway region on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, Somaliland declared independence after the overthrow of Somali military dictator Siad Barre in 1991.

A Google video search showed that the 20-minute long video appeared on youtube on the 12 of September 2015 on a Somali youtube channel, Dhamays Media Production, with an English translated caption of “Watch the War on the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Somaliland”, having 1,424,316 views, Somali Star Tv, (14 minutes 37 seconds) with 86,967 views, and on 2Qumac, (9 minutes 49 seconds) on the 13th of September 2015 with 246,273 views.

A Google translate of the caption that accompanied the video on 2Qumac read, “How did the Somaliland House of Representative’s scandal start?”

Another caption under the video indicated that the fight was between Chairman Irro and his deputy Bashe.

Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi (Irro)  is a Somaliland politician who was the 4th Speaker of the Somaliland House of Representatives.

Bashe Mohamed Farah Irro then deputy is the 5th and current Speaker of the Somaliland House of Representatives.

Somalia’s government officially comprises the executive branch of government, with the parliament serving as the legislative branch. It is headed by the President of Somalia, to whom the Council of Ministers reports through the Prime Minister.

Somalia practises a Federal Parliamentary system of government which is currently headed by Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed who is also the current President of Somalia, and Mahdi Mohammed Gulaid, the Prime Minister.

Somalia currently does not have an office of Deputy President. The last officially recognised Somalian vice president was  Siad Barre, ousted in 1991.

THE VERDICT:

Nana’s claim that the viral video is of the Somalian president and his deputy is FALSE. The Federal government of Somalia currently has no office for deputy president. Also, “Golaha Wakiilada” which appeared on the video is the Somali language for House of Representatives (Somaliland) when translated to English, and the flag that appeared on the video is that of Somaliland and not Somalia.

1...157158159...177Page 158 of 177