The Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Bayo Onanuga, has come under fire after accusing the Nigerian media of embellishing reports about the country’s economic crisis that has left families struggling to survive.
Mr. Onanuga accused the media of “over-sensationalization”, and said reports about hardship appeared to be a “mere propaganda”, inflamed by those who lost the 2015 election.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, Mr. Onanuga said his findings showed that the cost of food items had not gone up, contrary to reports in the media.
“I was in Bauchi and Jos at the weekend, I also found that food was cheap everywhere,” said Mr. Onanuga, who appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari last May.
“In our hotel, we paid about N700 for a plate of semovita, or eba with a choice of cat fish or chicken.
“On the roadside, I found to my surprise that with just N1000, I bought over 50 oranges, two giant water melon and 10 pieces of sweet potato.
“I had experienced a similar thing in the market at Abuja, where I found that with N1, 400, I could make a big vegetable soup, with tomato, pepper and roasted Titus fish.
“Are the media and bloggers really painting a correct image of our country? It’s time for the media to objectively conduct a reality check about our reports, whether we are not over sensationalising so-called hardship that we talked about.”
Mr. Onanuga also faulted recent media reports that due to the grinding hardship, foreign airlines fly almost empty out of Nigeria.
“My daughter was on the Virgin Atlantic Flight that took off from Lagos to London today,” he said.
“I asked her to find out whether the plane was filled up or going to London near empty judging by the noisy campaign from a section of the country about the ‘hardship’ in our country.
“My daughter sent back this one-line text, after boarding: “daddy, the flight was filled up o.
“This makes me to wonder whether all the seeming orchestrated campaign in the media was not mere propaganda to make the Buhari regime look really bad.”
A respected journalist, Mr. Onanuga was among those who confronted the tyranny of military rule in Nigeria in the 1980s and 1990s. He suffered persecution during the Sani Abacha dictatorship and fled the country in December 1997.
Before his appointment as head of NAN, Mr. Onanuga, a multiple award winning publisher, editor, and reporter, was the chief executive officer of The News/PM News.
His comments Tuesday drew scathing criticisms from his online followers on Tuesday, with some readers asking him to take down the post.
One user, Adeyemi Adeniyi, described Mr. Onanuga’s comments as “plain insensitive”.
“Mr. Onanuga certainly does not belong here in the world of Nigerians who daily toil and yet groan under excruciating hardship,” he wrote.
Victor Ojelabi suggested the NAN MD’s account had been hacked. “Someone should please inform him,” Mr. Ojelabi.
Mr. Onanuga confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that he authored the post. Again, he suggested that the claim of hardship was politically motivated.
But he said he merely posed a question, and had not taken a definite position on the issue.
“I am not saying there’s no problem in our country, but some of the things are exaggerated. I just raised a kind of intervention to ask are these things really true,” Mr. Onanuga told PREMIUM TIMES. “I have seen photographs of children suffering from kwashiorkor and they are passing them off as what’s happening in Nigeria.
Mr. Onanuga said he was not surprised by the criticisms that followed his post.
“Some people have taken position. Some people who lost election in 2015 are still behaving as if they were still campaigning. If you look at some of criticisms, they appear to be coming from a particular section of the country persistently and consistently,” he said.

AntiWailer:
Yes it is blown out of proportion.

I read Fuel is to be increased but i bought fuel for 140 naira per litre today.

We read how a man jumped from a tall building because of hardship in Nigeria it appears the man jumped in Uganda on our behalf.

We heard another one commited suicide, meanwhile investigation showed he was killed and a rope was arranged to cover up the murder.

They talk as if there is no longer light in Nigeria, infact some one wrote how there was no light in Lagos.


The times are hard but MAGNIFYING it to favour PDP and the rogues who are just bent on escaping prosecution will be to the detriment of the common masses.

Fyno:
your on point brother, I even bought a Bag of Rice at #8000 at shoprite owerri today while they keep saying its #20000.
NNPC near my HUX dey sell kerosene at #35 a liter,one paint of garri is #250,Yam 100 a tuber even idomie super park is now #650 a carton.
PDP wants to rubbish our grandfather just because he's old

Fyno:
your on point brother, I even bought a Bag of Rice at #8000 at shoprite owerri today while they keep saying its #20000.
NNPC near my HUX dey sell kerosene at #35 a liter,one paint of garri is #250,Yam 100 a tuber even idomie super park is now #650 a carton.
PDP wants to rubbish our grandfather just because he's old

WebSurfer:
What nonsense is this man talking about?
Does he really stay in Nigeria or authoring these stories from Overseas

ArmedRobber:
He has some points though, hunger is in the Land for those that refuse to Leave the city.
This issue of Hunger was blown out of proportion by unscropulous never do well Elements,just to paint this administration bad.

Rural areas in Lagos like ipaja,ayobo,e.t.c you can't still get cheap foodstuffs in this area.
I was at megida junction ayobo last week and someone bought a derica of Rice for N220 and beans for N180
That's when I realised Aboki in ikoyi,mama ngozi at obalende market re cheating us.
Imagine I pay N350 for a derica of Rice and N300 for beans in obalende-ikoyi axis.
I spend almost 10k on foodstuff at obalende market last month which I could have bought cheaper at ayobo including transport.
Govt needs a price regulation system to check the activities of this traders.
Especially the ones on island.them just dey Rob us of our hard. Earned cash

oduastates:
I understand what he is talking about but he definitely did not put it the right way.
There is hunger in the land for sure when in fact, there shouldn't be.
Food is wasting in the rural areas and it has been like this ever since I was born.
Anybody who doubts it should go to taraba or benue and attempt to eat a N1000 meal of pounded yam and goat meat.
I can assure you, you will be returned in a casket.

THE PROBLEM
Our so called " in America" and "in Japan" economist,technocrats and textbook experts have always blamed this scenario on bad roads.that is, the inability to evacuate excess food to the market.

Odua states says the reason is as a result of a lack of imagination, organisation,planning and lack of creativity.

I am not going to go into details on each point because I have touched some of these issues before.
A lot can be done with railways,even as archaic as the rail system is.
1 Devote the railway as it is to mostly goods
2 terminate the goods rail journeys outside city limits.
3 Handover journeys within city limits to state's for mass transit. Numerous daily Journeys Abeokuta - oshodi will remove many cars from the road thereby, reducing the pressures on the foreign exchange.
The train journey starts in Abeokuta and end finishes in the journey in lagos.Instead of waiting...

To be continued

shyling:

Wake up. Food is not wasting in any imaginary rural areas

Branzy:
..
Abeg I go send yu moni make yu buy 20 bags.. Anufia

shyling:

Wake up. Food is not wasting in any imaginary rural areas

shyling:

Wake up. Food is not wasting in any imaginary rural areas

shyling:

Wake up. Food is not wasting in any imaginary rural areas