Saheed Ibrahim

Claim: A viral Instagram video claimed that residents of Ondo State, Nigeria, resorted to buying dogs for Christmas celebrations due to the high cost of chickens, goats, and rams.

Verdict: Misleading! The video does not depict events in Ondo State. 

Full Text 

Nigeria joined the rest of the world to celebrate Christmas and the New Year festivals some days ago. The festivals were celebrated amidst skyrocketing inflation and harsh economic realities in the country.

Before the celebration, a video began circulating on Instagram, claiming that the people of Ondo State in Southwest Nigeria resorted to buying dogs to kill for Christmas due to the high cost of fowl, goat and ram.

The 27-second video of a dog market was posted by Opeyemi Famakim (@opeyemifamakin) on December 7, 2024. The video has attracted over 26,000 likes and tens of comments, with some of the commenters believing the content of the video.

@opeyemifamakin is a self-acclaimed ‘Minister of African Food Tourism’ and ‘the biggest food critic in Nigeria’. 

Opeyemi Famakin said, “Ah! Ondo State. This video is in Ondo State. I heard that because of T-Pain (social media nickname for President Bola Tinubu) and bla bla bla, people cannot afford to buy goat, chicken and ram, they are resorting to buying dogs. One dog goes as expensive as N90,000…(sic)”

We fact-checked Famakin’s claim in the video.

Verification

We downloaded the video from Opeyemi Famakin’s Instagram page and analysed its keyframes using InVid and Google Reverse Image search.

Results showed that the video had been on the internet before @opeyemifamakin posted it on his Instagram page.

On October 23 2024, the video was posted on Tanzanian Instagram by @tanzanite_queen with the caption, “IRINGA SOKONI. Kumbe Familia za Kizungu Ndo Raha Hivi..?

Translated to English, it means “IRINGA IN THE MARKET. So English families are the fun this way..?

On October 26, 2024, the same video was posted by @mkabiloni. The video has the label Trend TV and a screen caption “Iringa” with a dog and laughing emojis.  @mulastar also posted the video, with the caption “Iringa ndyo mmeamua kuhalalisha kitoweo😂😂😂” (Iringa has decided to legalize the stew😂😂😂).” Iringa is a place in Tanzania.

We also found that the video was posted on Instagram by @ondo_diary on December 5, 2024, with the caption “As cows, goat & chickens are too expensive in Nigeria this period, no do pass yourself this coming Christmas 😁! You know what to do 😉😉!” @ondo_diary, however, did not say the video was recorded in Ondo State.

Meanwhile, we found that a dog market exists in Plateau State Nigeria. It can be found here and here.

Conclusion

The claim that people in Ondo State resorted to buying dogs for Christmas due to harsh economic realities is misleading. The viral video cited as evidence does not originate from Ondo State. A digital analysis reveals the video was first posted in October 2024 by Tanzanian accounts.