Months-old austerity announcement misleadingly linked to Nigerian ‘bad governance’ protest

“Tinubu allegedly cuts cost of governance in response to the demands of the #EndBadGovernaceInNigerian protest. Long police entourage from Abuja to Lagos and Item 7 for international travels removed (sic),” reads an X post shared more than 700 times since it was published on August 7, 2024.

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Screenshot showing the misleading X post, taken August 13, 2024

In the TikTok video published as part of the post, Tinubu’s spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale is seen announcing a 60-percent reduction in the number of people who travel with the president locally and abroad.

“Henceforth, the president is insistent that the notion of government wastage, the notion of recurrent expenditure being in excess, the notion that government officials will be allowed to conduct their affairs in a way that is different from what we are asking of Nigerian citizens with respect to prudence and cost management, those days are over,” Ngelale says in the 15-minute clip.

A review of the replies indicated that commenters appeared to believe the claim. 

“All na lie!!”, a user wrote in Pidgin, which translates to “it's all lies”. 

“You guys are very insincere and no one takes you seriously”, said another.

The post also featured the #EndBadGovernaceInNigeria hashtag, in reference to an online campaign running parallel to the street protests that called for the government to reduce fuel prices and tackle the cost of living crisis.

The hashtag use, used in the context of the video,  implied that the announcement was a response to the 10-day anti-hunger protests that began on August 1, 2024.

However, the claim about the clip is misleading. 

Old video

Using the InVID-WeVerify tool, we extracted keyframes from the clip and conducted reverse image searches.

One result led to a five-minute-long video posted on YouTube on January 9, 2024 (archived here). AFP Fact Check also found a matching high-resolution version in an X post published on the same day by Nigerian broadcaster Arise News.

“Tinubu slashes official entourages by 60%,” reads the headline in the Arise News post.

According to local media outlet TheCable, the announcement of the cost-cutting exercise came a few days after the government was criticised for sponsoring 1,411 delegates at the 2023 United Nations’ annual climate summit in Dubai, costing at least 2.7 billion naira (about $16.5 million) (archived here). 

Anti-hunger protest

Africa's most populous country is struggling with soaring inflation and a sharply devalued naira currency after Tinubu introduced reforms in 2023 that aimed to revive the economy.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in early August to protest the policies and soaring living costs, which have deepened hunger among the population.

However, while the protest was slated to be held from August 1-10, it started recording low turnout from the third day following police attacks on protesters. Rights group Amnesty International has accused security forces of killing at least 21 protesters (archived here).

The national police force said it had arrested nearly 700 people in the first two days of demonstrations, accusing them of “armed robbery, arson, mischief” and destroying property.

On August 4, 2024, Tinubu addressed the country to defend his administration’s performance and to call for an end to the protests (archived here).