FACT-CHECK: Did VP Shettima Recently Seek “$1 Billion” and “$50 Million” to Address Northern Nigeria’s Crisis?
CLAIM: A viral video circulating across Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp and X claims that Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, recently stated that he needed “$1 billion and $50 million” to end insecurity in Northern Nigeria.
BACKGROUND: In the clip, a female “blogger” is seen in the background with an image insert of the vice president on display as she called him out, alleging that despite huge sums already spent on counterterrorism operations, Shettima is still demanding additional funds before meaningful progress can be made against insurgency and banditry.
According to the narrator: “Give him one billion. So the Vice President Shettima said if they give him one billion dollars and 50 million dollars that he will end the crisis in the North.”
Few minutes into the clip and an insert of the footage of where VP Shettima allegedly said so, was displayed, stating:
“It was one billion and 50 million dollars. One billion and 50 million dollars. Give me half of this money. Believe me, I can wipe out every crisis in the Northeast. Just give me 500 million dollars and see what I can do.”
The clip has generated widespread reactions online, with many users believing the statement was made recently in his capacity as Vice President.
The video resurfaced amid renewed public debate over insecurity in Northern Nigeria, military expenditure, and the effectiveness of government efforts to combat terrorism, banditry and other violent crimes.
Several social media users shared the footage as evidence that the Vice President was requesting fresh funding from the federal government to tackle insecurity. Others questioned the utilisation of previous security allocations, foreign assistance and intervention funds expended over the years in the fight against Boko Haram and related insurgencies.
The viral clip was circulated with captions suggesting that Shettima was waiting for additional financial support before addressing the region’s security challenges, prompting criticism from some members of the public.
VERIFICATION: To verify the authenticity and context of the claim, PRNigeria‘s fact-check team conducted a comprehensive digital investigation using video verification tools, reverse image searches, keyframe analysis and forensic assessment techniques.
The team first extracted keyframes from the viral video using the InVID-WeVerify verification tool and subjected them to reverse image searches across multiple search engines and social media archives.
PRNigeria observed that the video has been repeatedly circulated online with varying captions and dates over the years. The most recent version reviewed by the fact-check team was shared on June 2, 2026, attracting significant engagement. The posts recorded approximately 1,300 likes, over 500 reposts and shares, nearly 90 comments, and more than 157,000 views, highlighting the extent of its reach and potential to mislead viewers about the timing and context of the statement.
The reverse search results revealed that the footage is not recent and did not originate during Shettima’s tenure as Vice President.
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Further investigation traced the video to his period as Governor of Borno State during the height of the Boko Haram insurgency. Multiple archived social media posts and older online publications indicate that the footage predates his assumption of office as Vice President by several years.
In addition, PRNigeria fact-check team discovered that this statement was made by Kashim Shettima in December 2017 while addressing journalists and stakeholders in Kaduna in his capacity as the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum while he was defending the alleged amount.
Archived reports from the period show the former governor repeatedly arguing that insecurity could not be addressed solely through military operations and that significant resources would be required to rebuild affected communities, restore livelihoods and stabilise the region.
PRNigeria further reviewed more recent public statements by the Vice President and found that he has consistently maintained that military operations alone cannot resolve insecurity. He has repeatedly advocated a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic measures, including education, economic empowerment, reconstruction, social intervention and community engagement.
There is nowhere he recently requested for such amount as claimed.
To determine whether the viral clip had been manipulated using artificial intelligence, the team conducted frame-by-frame forensic analysis, assessing facial rendering, speech synchronisation, motion consistency, lighting patterns and audio integrity.
The analysis found no evidence of AI-generated content, deepfake manipulation, synthetic voice cloning, facial warping, lip-sync abnormalities or frame-generation artefacts commonly associated with artificially generated videos.
Body movements, facial expressions, lighting conditions and speech patterns remained consistent throughout the footage, indicating that the clip depicts a genuine historical recording rather than a digitally generated or manipulated video.
However, the investigation established that the video has been stripped of its original context and repackaged in a manner that creates the misleading impression that the statement was recently made by the Vice President.
PRNigeria also found no evidence that Shettima recently requested $1 billion and $50 million from the federal government to address insecurity in Northern Nigeria.
CONCLUSION: Findings by PRNigeria‘s fact-check team show that the viral video is an authentic recording from Kashim Shettima’s period as Governor of Borno State and not a recent statement made in his capacity as Vice President.
Available evidence confirms that the footage predates his vice-presidential tenure and has been recirculated years later without its original context.
The video itself is genuine and not AI-generated. However, its presentation on social media falsely suggests that Shettima recently demanded $1 billion and $50 million to tackle insecurity in Northern Nigeria.
VERDICT: Misleading.
By PRNigeria
