Despite denials on Thursday by Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun that she never uttered the statement “recession is a word” as ascribed to her in a tweet via her official Twitter account @MrskemiAdeosun, a video has surfaced where Mrs. Adeosun is seen making the exact comment she has now vehemently denied.
A tweet via her official Twitter account, @Mrskemiadeosun had played down the significance of a recession after the National Bureau of Statistics announced that Nigeria’s economy contracted by 2.06% in the second quarter, bringing the country into a long predicted recession.
“The strongest of all warriors are these two, time and patience. I know people are concerned about the recession. Recession is a word,” the handle tweeted.
The tweet was later deleted.
Festus Akanbi, spokesman for Mr. Adeosun, told Premium Times on Thursday the account was fake and the statements did not reflect the position of his principal.
“The Twitter handle, @Mrskemiadeosun, does not belong to the Honourable Minister of Finance. At no point did she make that kind of statement in her interaction with the media after the Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday. The fake handle does not belong to her,” Mr. Akanbi said.
“There are several other handles circulating on social media including Facebook.”
Mr. Akanbi also said Mrs. Adeosun has no presence on Twitter.
In what appeared to be a rush at damage control, the bio of Mrs. Adeosun’s Twitter account was edited thus; “Parody Twitter account of the Honourable Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” as seen in the screenshot below:
Following the the untidy development which appeared an attempt at a cover up, SIGNAL alerted Nigerians via a tweet:
FLASH | Kemi Adeosun edits Twitter bio to parody after backlash over ‘recession is just a word’ comment. pic.twitter.com/lY8SKZeT70
— SIGNAL (@thesignalng) September 1, 2016
But in a swift reaction to the tweet by SIGNAL which has now gone viral on Twitter, the account has now been re-edited again with no bio at all as seen below:
Notwithstanding the denials by Mrs. Adeosun, further checks by SIGNAL unearthed a video where she actually said loudly and clearly enough for the world to hear that “recession is a word”.
Watch the video below. The relevant portion is between 4.20 to 4.25 in the duration of clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZcwG36gq3Y
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