On September 11, 2023, a verified X (formerly Twitter) user claimed that “Borno State youths jubilate as House of Representatives member empowers them with shoe shining kits, bags of oranges, and others”.
The X user provided an array of pictures of young men wearing similar polo shirts and shoe-shining kits, with claims that a Nigerian lawmaker had recently given the kits to young people in Borno State. As of the time of compiling this report, the post had been viewed over 500 thousand times, reposted over 1,958 times, and had 4,875 likes and 626 Quotes. Other accounts on the microblogging app also shared the tweet.
Verification
A Google Reverse Image search established that the images have been in existence since 2018.
Premium Times reported that a former commissioner for Education, Usman Jaha, in Borno State, not a House of Representative member as recently claimed, was criticised for distributing shoe-shining kits to youths in Gwoza as an empowerment programme in the state.
According to the report, the former governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, who is presently the Nigerian vice president, had queried the commissioner for Higher Education and aspirant for the House of Representatives in 2019 elections, Usman Jaha (Babawo), for distributing shoe polish and other items to youth in Gwoza as part of his welfare programme.
Shettima, who was upset by the donation, chided the official for embarrassing not only himself but the administration.
“The governor reminded the commissioner that his own Ministry has so far facilitated the approval of foreign university scholarships to more than 300 Borno youth, among them almost 100 ladies studying medicine abroad, as part of the governor’s standard’ in human resource development’’.
The guardian also reported on May 18, 2018 that “Borno State commissioner for Higher Education and aspirant for the House of Representatives, Usman Jaha (Babawo), queried for embarrassing government with shoe polish donation.”
Verdict: MISLEADING
The claim that a member of the House of Representatives recently shared shoe-shining kits to the youths in Borno State is Misleading. The images date back to 2018 when Usman Jaha distributed the empowerment materials to youths in the State. He made the distributions as the Borno State commissioner of Education, while he was aspiring for a seat in the House of Representatives. As of 2018, the donor of the shoe kits was an aspirant and not yet a lawmaker.
Featured image: Channels Television
Leave a Reply