A video showcasing the Niger State agricultural development under the administration of Governor Muhammed Umar Bago contains manipulated content and non-existent images.
The 9-minutes-51-seconds video posted by a YouTube page, identified as Inter Vlog was posted on May 5, 2024.
The video captioned “HE BOUGHT 1000 TRACTORS FOR MECHANIZED FARMING IN NIGER STATE NIGERIA. WATCH” posted by Inter Vlog with 167,000 subscribers, had garnered 35,000 views and 707 likes as of the time of filing this report.
In the video, the narrator made a series of claims, one of which was that a certain Jerry Cunningham helped the Niger State Government to set up a mechanised agriculture revolution with a purchase of 1,000 tractors early in 2024.
There are reports that Governor Bago bought 1000 tractors to enhance agricultural development in the state on February 29, 2024, and an additional 2000 tractors as reported on March 7, 2024. And indeed, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was in Niger State to flag-off the Agricultural mechanisation project, as reported here in a March 11, 2024 State House press statement signed by Ajuri Ngelale, the President’s spokesman.
But there is nowhere in the media reports where the Niger State Government entered an agreement with Jerry Cunningham as claimed by Inter Vlog in its video of May 5, 2024.
Various reports indicated that Governor Bago either visited (November 2023) agricultural machinery manufacturers, partnered with (March 6, 2024) or signed memoranda of understanding, but there is no mention of a certain Jerry Cunningham.
Screenshot of image purported to be Jerry Cunningham
The YouTube video by Inter Vlog claimed that Jerry Cunningham, a major partner in the Niger State agricultural revolution, is the Director of American West Africa Agro Limited, and “he is the one supplying all the machinery that Nigeria needs.”
Who is Jerry Cunningham?
A name search on Google shows that there are many people with the name, Jerry Cunningham. And a Google image inquiry did not find any match with the image in the video represented as Jerry Cunningham.
Among the other persons identified as Jerry Cunningham is one Marion – Jerry Wayne Cunningham who died on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 and there is no agricultural initiative tied to his name.
Many other persons identified online by the name have no business in agriculture, except this Jerry Cunningham who is identified as CEO at WM Agro International, but with neither image nor posts to his LinkedIn account.
Another Jerry Cunningham in the video
The other Jerry Cunningham in the video posted by Inter Vlog is not available anywhere else on the internet as both Google image search and InVid inquiries on the images by that name did not yield any result. The images are most likely AI generated.
Jerry Cunningham is not listed as a board member on the website of West African Agribusiness Limited, and the only news with a mention of Niger State on the website is about a fishery project.
Conclusion
The claim that the agricultural revolution of Governor Bago in Niger State is driven by Jerry Cunningham of American West Africa Agro Limited is fabricated and misleading.
