BY Taiwo George
Bayo Onanuga, managing director (MD) of the News Agency of Nigeria, stirred a controversy Tuesday with his comment on the hardship in the land.
The former MD of The News took to his Facebook page to say an “objective check” would reveal that supposed harsh economic reality under President Muhammadu Buhari was being blown out of proportion.
He narrated how his daughter, who flew a Virgin Atlantic flight from Lagos to London, found many Nigerians on board amid the “seeming” economic crisis.
His status update has been eliciting caustic reactions on social media, particularly on Facebook.
“My daughter was on the Virgin Atlantic flight that took off from Lagos to London today. I asked her to find out whether the plane was filled up or going to London near empty judging by the noisy campaign from a section of the country about the ‘hardship’ in our country,” he wrote.
“My daughter sent back this one-line text, after boarding: “Daddy, the flight was filled up o.
“This makes me to 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.
“Are the media and bloggers really painting a correct image of our country. It’s time for the media to objectively conducted a reality check about our reports, whether we are not over sensationalising so-called hardship that we talked about.”
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