Yunusa Umar
A video showing thousands of women carrying bags of rice on their heads generated significant engagements on X. @gretytruthmedia posted the clip on October, 2, 2024 with the caption; “This is not an Ant Colony! It’s some of the yoruba women lucky enough to grab a 5kg bag of rice.The Ebi n’pawa consolation, till the next time they stage a public outcry”. The post has generated over 85,500 views, 171 replies, 982 reposts and quotes, over 1,400 likes and 124 bookmarks as of the time this report was published.
In the 26 seconds clip, it showed women including children with bags of rice placed on their heads. The audio sound in the clip was filled with a plethora of voices without everything being said clear enough to pick a soundbite of conversation
The comments under the post ranged from bewilderment to amusement, @your_favxparte replied to the post saying, “Ant Colony 😂😂😂We are playing hunger games in Nigeria”. Another X user, @Segolopade commented that, “Lmao! We saw your miserable and pitiable mothers line up under the sun for a cup of grains like beggars but you mock thousands of people with decently packaged 5kg bags of rice. The joke is on you” while @mariaeke commented saying, “See hunger for Yorubaland”.
“Nigeria will soon become the poverty capital of the world. When has anyone seen Nigerians queuing for food. Never a time. This is soo sad”, @MJO_Maddox reacted to the post. Then, @Adeniyi01520272 asked, “After this finished, what next?.
The comments under the post and the lack of consensus on the identity of the people in the video prompted NV-A to do a deep dive and verify the authenticity of the video.
VERIFICATION
NV-A extracted screenshots of the footage and subjected it to Google Lens, the results show that a similar footage dating back to August 2024. A Facebook page, ‘History, News And Fact Villagers’ posted the same video length on August, 5, 2024 with a caption; “All thanks to Aliko Dangote Foundation, the foundation is really trying for the poor people of this country, the help has reached Yoruba land. May Allah bless Hajiya Fatima Dangote for this great job. This is really beautiful.”
Similarly, an X page, @Zoom Afrika posted the clip on August, 5, 2024 with a different caption, “Nigerian Protestors who stormed the Streets of Nigeria over high cost of living receives a Bags of rice from the Government and asked to go home.”
Further search on Google Lens led to a similar image of women with bags of rice on their head from Dangote Group’s website. The feature article on the website which was titled, “Dangote’s million-bag rice relief: Spreading joy, alleviating hardship”, extolled how the Aliko Dangote Foundation had undertaken the distribution of one million bags of rice to vulnerable households across Nigeria, an initiative that was flagged off during the 2024 Ramadan between March and April.
The foundation posted images on its Instagram page on March 27 featuring the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu commemorating the flag off for its national food distribution program in Lagos.
A keyword search by NV-A shows that P.M News, and Guardian reported the news in April, 2024 but omitted the images. Additional searches led our fact-checker to X user,@MFaarees_ post that tweeted the same clip on April, 17, 2024, with its caption thanking Dangote’s foundation.
Further search on the video took the fact-checker to the Lagos Food Bank Instagram page, where we found that the initiative partnered with the Aliko Dangote Foundation to distribute the bags of rice across Lagos communities.
The viral video was found on the food bank’s April 7 post with the caption, “Congratulations 🎊🍾🎈 to us; we are happy to celebrate another milestone in our journey of impact serving low income communities and families in Ajeromi Ifelodun LGA in partnership with @alikodangotefoundation ; beneficiaries were thrilled with so much joy, excitement and ecstasy as they go home with 10kg of Premium Dangote Rice to feed their families. The outreach was in response to the current economic challenges facing the nation, showing commitment to supporting the most vulnerable in society.”
The video clearly showed the inscription on the bag that it was a 10kg bag of rice, not 5kg as stated by @gretytruthmedia and the Aliko Dangote Foundation with its logo was clearly inscribed on the rice bag.
CONCLUSION
The claim that the video showed women with 5kg bags of Rice received from the government, is MISLEADING as video evidence shows it was a 10kg bag of rice and the claim that it was distributed by the government is FALSE, as the food was given to Nigerian families by the Aliko Dangote Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote in April 2024.
