By Pascal Ibe

Claim

An X user Chude Nnamdi posted video of ex Senate president speaking and claimed that Lawan said “Nobody is criticizing Tinubu because he is Yoruba.

Verdict

After watching the video thoroughly, FactWatch discovered that Ahmad Lawan didn’t say any of those things as claimed.

Rather, Lawan expressed concern about a potential food crisis, pointing out that the nation’s food reserves were completely empty.

Full Text

An X user, Chude Nnamdi on Thursday posted a video of the former Senate president of Nigeria, Ahmad and claimed that he said “Nobody is criticizing Tinubu because he is Yoruba, we all know his policies caused hunger and unbearable hardships”

The X user posted the video and wrote, “”Nobody is criticizing Tinubu because he is Yoruba, we all know his policies caused hunger and unbearable hardships”

  • Ahmad Lawan, Former Senate President.

You know things have gone out of hand when the worst Senator the history of this country start criticizing you.

The video posted by Chude Nnamdi on Thursday garnered over 52k views, 6k likes and over 3k reposts.

Most of the users who commented on the post, agreed that Ahmad Lawan actually said this.

See some comments below 👇

Due, high prices of food stuff in Nigeria’s market, on Tuesday, the federal government officially announced the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of food commodities.

Abubakar Kyari, minister of agriculture and food security, announced the development in a post on social media, detailing the federal government’s measures to address the high food prices currently affecting the nation.

Part of the measures, according to the statement, is a 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities, which involves the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes for the importation of food commodities — maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas — through land and sea borders.

Verification

When we watched till end, there’s no where in the video Lawan said “Nobody is criticizing Tinubu because he is Yoruba“

In the video, Ahmad Lawan said that there was a limit to how people could exercise patience and tolerance.

He explained, “I have seen first-hand how people, especially those who are not in the civil service nor in any business are suffering, fighting, struggling to have food at least once in a day.

“This Senate must engage the executive immediately. We have really little or nothing in our food reserve across the country.

“If you tell us that they will distribute foodstuff from our silos, the silos are empty. So it means we have to import food. And if we have to import, it means we need foreign exchange. That is why we have to engage the administration.

“We are the most vulnerable in the leadership arrangements of this country. Everybody looks up to senators or members of the House of Representatives.

“In fact, people see Senators as their Messiah. Any problem, they say, ‘go to your Senator.’ So, if we don’t take immediate action, we will lose the power.

“Our citizens under the situation of increased fuel price, increased electricity price, increased everything and we are yet to get the right measures to provide questions for our constituents.

“We wouldn’t like the kind of thing that we see in our streets and it is time that we take every possible action to ensure that food flood our country, the right food.

“On importation, government must be entirely responsible because we cannot, continue to take people for granted for too long. We have come almost to the end of their patience. I think the elasticity is now going to elapse if we are not careful.”

The Senate resolution was sequel to a motion by the Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Sunday Karimi, on the urgent need to address food insecurity and market exploitation of consumables in Nigeria.

Senators in their various contributions lamented the high cost of food in the country and urged the federal government to arrest the situation.

Conclusion

The claim by X user that Lawan said, “Nobody is criticizing Tinubu because he is Yoruba, we all know his policies caused hunger and unbearable hardships”, is Misleading.

The Senator representing Yobe north only expressed concerns over hunger currently in Nigeria.

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