Throughout 2024, the Bola Tinubu-led administration tried to convince Nigerians that it was steering the country in the right direction with its “Renewed Hope” agenda.
Many times, the government has been caught disseminating misinformation about the country’s progress. These lies were propagated by President Tinubu, Kassim Shettima, the vice president, their authorised spokespersons or Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The false information is aimed to bolster the image of the country on security, economy, infrastructure development, foreign investment and other sore areas for Nigerians. They shared to make citizens believe that the federal government has made significant progress in improving living conditions in the country.
These propagandas are given widespread coverage and are often told in believable manners. FIJ has highlighted some of the major falsehoods the federal government told Nigerians in 2024.
NIGERIA PRODUCED 1.7 MILLION BARRELS OF OIL PER DAY
In May, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) claimed via one of its published newsletters that the country witnessed an increase in oil production from 1.3 million barrels in June 2023 to 1.7 million in the first quarter of 2024.
The NOA said that the increase in oil production is an indicator of improved revenue performance for President Tinubu, who was yet to mark his first year in office at the time.
FIJ fact-checked this claim and found that not only was it false and exaggerated, but the highest Nigeria ever produced in the first quarter of the year was 1.43 million barrels in a day.
This fell short of the NOA’s claim by 270,000 barrels.
READ ALSO: Tinubu Forgets Kidnap Incidents, Claims Nigerians Now Travel on ‘Safer Roads’
NIGERIA BUDGETED 97% OF REVENUE FOR DEBT SERVICE
In June, Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu’s special adviser on information and strategy, in response to an article by the New York Times on Nigeria’s economic situation stated that 97 per cent of the country’s budget in 2023 was for debt servicing.
He said this in response to the newspaper’s claim that Nigeria was facing its worst economic crisis in a generation.
While responding, Onanuga said “Nigeria had maintained a fuel subsidy regime that gulped $84.39 billion between 2005 and 2022 from the public treasury in a country with huge infrastructural deficits and in high need of better social services for its citizens” and that its government planned to spend 97 per cent of its revenue from oil on debt payments.
FIJ tried to verify this claim and found that only 45.6 per cent of tax revenues were spent servicing debts, contrary to the presidential spokesperson’s claim.
TINUBU’s CLAIM ON $30B FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
While delivering his presidential speech on October 1, Tinubu claimed that his administration had attracted $30 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) since it assumed office.
He said this to highlight some of the progress his government was making in steering Nigeria’s economy towards the “right path”.
However, FIJ found that not only was his claim false but that Nigeria witnessed the lowest FDI ever in the second quarter of the year.
FIJ found that the country’s FDI dropped from $118.9 million recorded in the first quarter of 2024 and that the total FDI from 2023 to the second quarter of 2024 amounts to just $994.41 million.
VP’s CLAIM ON NIGERIA’S OIL REVENUE, GLOBAL TALENT DEFICIT
On oil, in October, while commissioning the Enugu State Fashion Hub and launching the 5th Expanded National Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME) Clinics project, Shettima said that the highest revenue Nigeria had ever made from oil exports was $35 billion in 2011.
Shettima made this claim to project some progress made in the Nigerian economy under Tinubu.
FIJ tried to verify this claim and found that the highest revenue Nigeria had made from oil was $86 billion in 2012. It also flagged this as an outright disinformation from the presidency.
NIGERIAN ROADS ARE SAFER TO TRAVEL
On December 23, Tinubu told journalists during a presidential media chat that since assumed office, Nigerian roads, often plagued by insecurity, were now safer to travel.
He said while they might be in bad condition, it was safer to move from one part of the country to another. He said this to highlight the progress his administration was making in keeping Nigerians safe within their country.
FIJ examined this claim and found at least 10 instances of insecurity on Nigerian roads since Tinubu assumed office. These instances were often marked by killing, kidnapping, abduction and then ransom collection.
In some of the cases, at least more than 10 people were kidnapped at once.
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