A photo collage showing some young men in similar polo shirts and shoe-shining kits have resurfaced online with a claim that a Nigerian lawmaker distributed the kits to the youths in Borno state recently.
The claim is being shared to emphasize the reported widespread poverty in the northern part of the country.
A verified X (formerly Twitter) user, @Nwaadaz, posted the claim with a caption that read:
“Borno State youths jubilate as House of Reps member empowers them with shoe shining kits, bags of oranges, others.”
The post has garnered about 2,000 reposts and almost 5,000 likes as of September 12, 2023.
Another verified X user, @LawrenceOkoroPG, posted a similar claim with a caption thus:
“House of Reps member in Borno State just did entrepreneurship empowerment for the Borno Youths with Shoe Shining Kits. Borno Youths are really lucky.”
The post has garnered over 200 reposts and more than 500 likes as of September 12, 2023.
It will be recalled that Nigerians face more hardship in recent times following the removal of the petrol subsidy, even as the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration later promised to ease the hardship in a national broadcast in July.
CLAIM
Photo collage shows Borno’s House of Representatives member sharing shoe-shining kits to youths in the state recently.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
A Google Reverse Image search shows that the images in the photo collage have been online since 2018. An earlier version of the images can be found here.
Premium Times had in 2018 reported that a former Commissioner for Education in Borno State (not a lawmaker), Usman Jaha, was criticised for distributing shoe-shining kits to youths in Gwoza as an empowerment programme.
The Commissioner, while responding to the criticism, explained that the programme represents his personal commitment tailored to address the specific requirements of Gwoza residents.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the photo collage shows Borno’s House of Representatives member sharing shoe-shining kits to youths in the state recently is MISLEADING; the photos have been online since 2018 while the empowerment was facilitated by a commissioner in the state, not a lawmaker.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
