YOUR SAY: Is the media exaggerating reports of economic hardship under Buhari?

Bayo Onanuga, managing director (MD) of the News Agency of Nigeria, sparked public outrage on Tuesday when he suggested that the media was hyping – or “over-sensationalising” – economic hardship under President Muhammadu Buhari.

In his opinion, an objective reality check is needed to reveal the true state of things in the country.

He said his daughter took a flight from Lagos to London and the flight was full, which made him “wonder whether all the seeming orchestrated campaign in the media was not mere propaganda to make the Buhari regime look really bad”.

“I was in Bauchi and Jos at the weekend, I also found that food was cheap everywhere. In our hotel, we paid about N700 for a plate of semovita, or eba with a choice of cat fish or chicken.

“On the roadside, I found to my surprise that with just N1000, I bought over 50 oranges, two giant water melon and 10 pieces of sweet potato. I had experienced a similar thing in the market at Abuja, where I found that with N1,400, I could make a big vegetable soup, with tomato, pepper and roasted Titus fish.”

But Onanuga was greeted with heavy criticism on Facebook and Twitter, and he attempted a clarification, writing: “I need to make myself crystal clear to all those who have responded, some with vulgar abuse, some with disparaging remarks, to my statement on Facebook on the situation in my country,” he wrote.

“First is that many people demonstrated in their reactions that they did not understand what I wrote. They simply read my statement upside down or ill-digested it.

“Several points I raised were mere hypotheses, mere suppositions, not conclusions. I asked: is it true? Have we been exaggerating our economic conditions? Can the media conduct some reality check?”

He acknowledged that there was some hardship in the land, adding that “even Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has had his wealth vastly reduced by the economic crisis”.

Onanuga argued that he had not be influenced by his government appointment, saying: “I have spent the past 36 years, post-graduation, defending the cause of the Nigerian people. Contrary to some opinions, my view is not influenced by my official position.”

In the past year, the naira has moved from about 210/$1 to 425/$1 at the parallel market. The pump price of petrol has gone from N87 per litre to N145 per litre; inflation has jumped from 9 percent to 17.1 percent.

A bag of rice has moved from about N10,000 to N20,000; Kerosene, the masses’ liquid, has more than doubled in price. United Airlines, Siberia, Aero Contractors, FirstNation, no longer fly in our skies due to “hostile economic environment”.

Also in the past one year, Nigeria has passed its biggest budget (in naira terms), electricity had also peaked at over 5,000 megawatts. Insurgency in the northeast has been reduced drastically; billions of naira looted in the past have been recovered. The war against corruption is ongoing with some results.

But if airports are ever-busy, local and international flights are filled up, and hotel bookings are rising, is there possibly a chance that Onanuga is right?

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