When Beninese parents are pushed to the wall due to poverty and the burden of caring for too many children, they often send their wards to neighbouring Nigeria with the help of traffickers to earn extra income. In part one of this investigative series, ‘Kunle ADEBAJO tells the story of what lies on the other …
Statistics show that, in nearly four decades, the output of Nigeria’s manufacturing sector has remained the same. The World Bank estimated that, as of 2018, the country’s Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) was worth $31 billion. But checks by The ICIR revealed that this was also the figure in 1982. On Friday, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, …
Read more “Nigeria’s Manufacturing Output Is The Same Today As It Was In 1982”
Pictures can mislead in several ways: when they contain false information, are doctored to misinform or are employed in a false context. As part of a series scrutinising online posts by prominent social media users, The ICIR used publicly available tools to verify pictures shared on Twitter by Lauretta Onochie, Personal Assistant on Social Media …
Read more “The Many Social Media Lies of Lauretta Onochie, President Buhari’s Aide”
Since the end of South Africa’s apartheid system in 1994, there have been at least 569 incidents of xenophobic violence in the country. Of these, 529, recorded up till December 2018, led to 309 deaths, 901 physical assaults, 2,193 looted shops, and over 100,000 people displaced. This is according to a report released by Xenowatch in December 2018. Xenowatch …
Read more “Data: 309 Reported Killed, Over 100,000 Displaced Due to Xenophobia in SA since 1994”
In August 2019 many news outlets reported that the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, was burning at an alarming rate. The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil, the country home to more than two-thirds of the forest, recorded over 70,000 fires across the region in 2019. Many people have shared images of the fires and of animals killed in …
Read more “Photos of Burnt Animals in Popular Tweet aren’t From Fires in Amazon”
Victims of rape hardly get justice in Nigeria. Oftentimes the miscarriage of justice happens because law enforcement officers compromise. ‘Kunle ADEBAJO reports. “Sorry sir, this amount that they told me, I don’t have up to that o,” Nanpon Julius pleads after exchanging pleasantries and introducing himself. He is on the phone with Okokon Udo, a …
Read more “Brazen Police Extortion is Frustrating Rape Victims’ Quest for Justice in Nigeria”
If you asked Grace Bako, 10, or her sister, Janet, 14, what careers they’re interested in when they become grownups, they would reply, Medicine and Pharmacy. And if you asked why, their explanation would be: to treat people, especially little children, who are dealing with trauma. What they may not immediately disclose though is that …
For a year and three months, Veronica Aloy Khenom worked tirelessly on her okra and cassava farm, just adjacent her home in Gokana, one of four local government areas in Ogoniland. One bright afternoon towards the end of January, she returned to finally gather the produce. But what she met was disappointing—though unsurprising. Since constant …
Read more “Life in Ogoniland Still Cruel as Ever Three Years After Cleanup’s Launch”
Six hundred and thirty naira (N630). This was the amount Andrew Bello, a Lagos-based lawyer, received in one of the months he worked for a law firm in Ikoyi. His total salary was supposed to be N20,000 per month, but his firm deducted N500 for each day he got to the office later than 8 …
Read more “Wigs Without Welfare: Lawyers in Nigeria Earn Below Minimum Wage, and It isn’t Unusual”
Fact-checking no doubt has become an important area of journalism globally and is increasingly taking centre stage across many newsrooms. In Nigeria, not only are major news agencies releasing fact-checks on a regular basis, establishing fact-check desks and empowering their reporters with advanced tools for research and verification, organisations, such as Africa Check and Dubawa, …