Fact-Checking on Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s Claims During #Debate2019

Yesterday, the vice presidential candidates of the PDP, the APC, APCN, ANN and the YPP took part in a televised debate where they stated their plans and answered questions about the economy, fighting corruption among other topics. During the debate, which was largely adjudged to have been won by the PDP candidate Peter Obi, Professor Osinbajo made some claims that are factually incorrect.

Claim One: Nigeria Is producing 7000 Megawatts of Electricity (FALSE)
According to the umbrella body of the electricity distribution company in Nigeria Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), While there is an available capacity of 7,000MW, what Nigeria presently generates is no more that 5,000MW. This is because there is insufficient gas to power the thermal plants due to gas line limitations.

Claim two: Nigeria produces 90% of the rice it consumes (False)
Despite the APC government’s promised agricultural revolution, Nigeria is still perceived to the world’s highest importer of rice according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Also, Rice farmers in Nigeria have recently reported a drop in output since last year due to higher input costs, insecurity and widespread flooding in the main growing regions.

Claim three: The Cost of fertilizer has reduced (False)
In a July report, Business Day newspaper reported that the average fertilizer prices across the states increased by with Urea rising by 0.64% and SSP recording an increase of 4.67% compared to average fertilizer prices of June, 2018.

Claim Four: Nigeria is one of the fastest growing economies (False)
A World Economic Forum GDP forecast for 2017 listed Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Djibouti as the only african countries in it’s world’s fastest growing economies list. Nigeria did not make the list.

Claim Five: Nigeria has built six innovation hubs (Unverifiable)
While speaking at the launch of the NorthEast Innovation Hub in Yola in June, Professor Osinbajo stated that the Federal Government would establish six innovation hubs across the country but yesterday said the FG had established six of such hubs. However, this claim remains unverifiable as there is no report in the media to back this claim that six innovation hubs have been built by the government. .