First up – Is the Photo showing Tinubu with his primary school classmates fact?

Ahead of Nigeria’s 2023 general election, a group photo of some young school children has gone viral on social media with a claim that it shows the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his primary school classmates.

The pupils were seen seated in a row; amidst them is a white woman who appeared to be their teacher.

Cue in pic: 

In the photo, a pupil was labeled with an arrow with a caption that indicates that the child was Tinubu amidst his classmates when he was in primary school.

The photo has been circulating online amidst controversy over Tinubu’s primary and secondary school certificates.

Verification  

When The photo was subjected to Google Reverse Image Search, the result shows that the image has been online since 2015.

According to several online mediums such as Herald Nigeria and Linda Ikeji Blog, the photo shows Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo with his primary school classmates in Corona Primary School, Lagos state.

The photo was also among the pictures published in May 2022 by Newswire under an article that featured Osinbajo’s biography.

There is no credible medium that portrays the image as that of Tinubu with his primary school classmates. Also, it was not posted by Tinubu or any of his media aides.

Furthermore Osinbajo’s media aide, Laolu Akande, confirmed that the photo is that of Vice President Osinbajo.

“The image has gone round several times. It’s the VP,” he said. 

Conclusion

The claim that the photo shows Bola Tinubu with his primary school classmates is FALSE; as findings show that the image is that of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. 

Next stop, Is it scientifically proven that booster jabs make cases worse as vaccines dont work?

Recently, a viral WhatsApp message made several claims about vaccines for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

According to this message, fully vaccinated people pose a threat in winter and must be quarantined while others claim that vaccines do not work.

The message also claims that booster shots make COVID-19 cases worse and that unvaccinated persons are not dangerous.

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Here is what we know that has been scientifically proven… 

The WHO has approved 8 vaccines for COVID-19 after having vetted their efficiency, effectiveness, and safety. According to Bloomberg, more than 8.23 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across 184 countries.

And thaat fully vaccinated persons according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are less likely to develop serious illnesses and vaccine shedding can only occur when a vaccine contains a weakened version of the virus which is not so in the case of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Conclusion

This viral WhatsApp message with several claims on COVID-19 is replete with falsehood.

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How true is the claim that 92% of Nigerians earn less than ₦60,000?

A Twitter user Ustashi Jake (@Hitee_) April, claimed 92% of Nigerians earn less than ₦60,000 a month and credited this to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

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  Verification 

To verify this, we first visited the NBS website to study its 2022 reports released so far since the claimant did not specify which 2022 document of the bureau it was referring to. Recent reports found on the website were the Consumers Price Index (CPI) and inflation report for January, February, and March 2022, and Automative Gas oil (fuel) price watch for January 2022, among others.

We observed that in these labor force reports, the bureau does not state the amount Nigerian workers classified as employed or underemployed earn apart from the rate of employment or underemployment in percentages. Even if there was a 2022 labor force statistics report which does not exist, it will not show how much workers (employed or underemployed) earn, be it 60,000, less, or more. 

Conclusion

Findings show there is no 2022 report by the NBS on the labor force, and previous reports do not carry the amount earned by employed or underemployed workers in Nigeria. This makes the claim false.

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