IN SUMMARY: A quote that Information Minister Lai Mohammed says Nigerian voters are only interested in handouts, and not the ruling party’s record, is false.
A quote circulating on Facebook has Nigerian information minister Lai Mohammed saying that the people of the country are only looking for “stomach infrastructure”.
The posts read: “We have provided infrastructure to Nigerians and they are looking for stomach infrastructure, we cannot afford that, Lai Mohammed.”
Mohammed is a minister in the ruling All Progressives Congress, which is hoping to be re-elected based on his time in office since 2015.
“Stomach infrastructure” is local slang for politicians who attract votes by giving money and food during election seasons.
Nigeria’s 2023 general election is scheduled for February and March.
But did Muhammad really insult Nigerians in this way? We review it.
The quote cannot be found
None of the publications give details about when and where the minister made the statement. This lack of detail about controversial statements is often a red flag.
We scoured the Ministry of Information website and social media pages looking for the quote and found nothing.
And no credible Nigerian media has reported it.
With the elections just weeks away, many false statements are being attributed to key political figures. This could harm people’s ability to make informed decisions during voting.
Read our analysis of this misinformation trend, and nine others, in the country ahead of the election.
