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Claim: Multiple online posts claim that the Vice President of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, said N8,000 can change the life of a youth.
Verdict: Insufficient evidence! We found no proof that Shettima made the statement, and no credible media organisation published the claim.
Full Text
Nigerians are currently facing a high inflation rate and skyrocketing food prices and other commodities. There have been several agitations and concerns regarding the country’s collapsing economy. The citizens’ economic frustration necessitated the #Endbadgovernance protest, which broke out on August 1, 2024.
Meanwhile, some news blogs and social media accounts claim that Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, said that ₦8,000 can change the life of a Nigerian youth. On August 16, Instablog9ja posted the picture of the Shettima on X with the caption, “N8,000 can change the life of a youth who knows what he is doing– says Kashim Shettima.”
As of August 22, the post has 2.8 million views, 7.4k comments, 3.4k retweets, 12k likes and 722 bookmarks. The post attracted several negative comments, especially towards the Vice President.
An X user, Kolawole Abisagbo (@excollboss), commented, “This shows how irrational and denigrating our leaders are. How can an elder statesman, a vice president for that matter, say something like this? It’s just so sad!” A Plateau Middle-belt girl (@CatiaKyen) also commented, “This man thinks the standard of living everywhere is the same as the Northern part. He should pack for side Joh. I even forgot who he was for some time now.”
However, X users like Mayowa-David (@Mayordavid_9) did not believe Shettima uttered the statement attributed to him. He said, “This is a false narration. He didn’t say this.”
Similar posts can be found on Facebook here and here. The claim can also be found on TikTok, YouTube, and other blogs.
Given the virality of the claim and the suspicion surrounding it, DUBAWA conducted this fact-check.
Verification
DUBAWA conducted a keyword search of Shettima + 8,000 + Youth. The results did not bring up any credible news channel reporting that Nigeria’s Vice President made the statement.
We also visited Shettima’s social media pages on X and Facebook and found no post or story related to the claim.
DUBAWA also conducted a keyword search on YouTube. We did not find the claim on any credible YouTube channel but on unverified channels such as here, here and here.
Naija Latest Gist shared a video of Shettima speaking with the viral caption, “N8,000 can change the life of a youth who knows what he is doing,” says Kashim Shettima. However, the narration mentioned that there is no video or evidence that confirms that Shettima made the statement.
DUBAWA analysed each of the sources where we found the claim, but none provided evidence that Shettima made the statement.
We noticed that a viral screenshot of the claim is attributed to GoldmyneTV. We visited GoldmyneTV’s X account and found no such post, indicating it was either not posted by the account or deleted. A keyword search of Shettima on the account only brought out other posts relating to Shettima on the account without anyone relating to the viral claim.
We further contacted GoldMyneTV for evidence of the post, but despite multiple attempts, we have not received a response as of the time of publication.
Conclusion
There is no evidence that Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima said N8,000 can change a youth’s life. The claim can only be found on social media and blogs, without any proof that Shettima made the statement.
