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A new study has revealed how Nigeria’s former Minister of Aviation and recent ambassadorial nominee, Femi Fani-Kayode, amplified a fictitious story that misled the Nigerian media and, in turn, the House of Representatives.
Titled, ‘7,221 Refrigerated Human joysticks”: Examining Nigerian Media’s Failure to Verify a Sensational, “Credible” Satirical Story,’ the study published in the Journal of Media Ethics was conducted by journalist-scholar Kemi Busari.
The study revealed that on 13 April 2021, at 4:42 p.m. local time, the former minister of aviation tweeted that a Nigerian ship had tried to smuggle thousands of mutilated human joysticks to China.
The study traced the source of Mr Fani-Kayode’s information to a satirical website, World News Daily Report (WNDR), that specialises in publishing fictionalised satires and whose motto is “where facts don’t matter.” The platform, run by two Canadians, Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, has been involved in messy legal battles over the publication of misleading content.
The WNDR article, published 19 March 2021, from which Mr Fani-Kayode’s tweet originates, purports that over 7,000 joysticks of Nigerians were apprehended en route to China. The human organs were found in “36 boxes labelled as plantains,” and the joysticks were valued at “more than $1.15 billion,” with each costing “around $160,000 each on the black market.”
It adds that the Chinese government confiscated the ship through an anonymous source and found that the officials arrested “four Nigerians, two Malians and two Cameronese (Cameroonians).” The platform further attributed the seizure announcement to a certain Chinese Customs spokesperson, Li Wu.
Fani-Kayode misleads Nigerian media
On 13 April 2021, Mr Fani-Kayode tweeted about the confiscation of Nigerian joysticks in China, linking such occurrences to terrorism. He tweeted:
“A ship from Nigeria has been impounded in China whilst trying to smuggle in 7,200 joysticks. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerian joysticks are smuggled into China every year. Nigeria is the world’s largest exporter of joysticks & this is why kidnapping & ritual killings are rife here.
“What do the Chinese do with these joysticks & why are they obsessed with Nigerian ones in particular? This is not a joke but a serious question. The Chinese should leave our joysticks alone & those that procure them for them in Nigeria should be regarded as terrorists & eliminated,” Mr Fani-Kayode’s tweet cited in the research reads.
Although he did not attribute his information to any source, details of his tweet were directly lifted from the WNDR’s story, the study notes.
Following the tweet, at least 29 Nigerian media outlets, including blogs and content aggregators, reproduced the fictitious story, citing Mr Fani-Kayode as their authoritative source, the study notes.
“Fani-Kayode’s X account had over 1 million followers as of the time of posting the ‘penis’ tweet,” the research states, “the tweet quickly went viral and appears to have played a pivotal role in bringing the story to the attention of Nigerian media outlets, many of which may not have encountered the original WNDR article.”
The former minister’s tweet also had a ripple effect, sparking a national conversation and eventually reaching the Nigerian House of Representatives, which considered a motion on the purported export of human joysticks.
Following a motion, the House of Representatives mandated its Committees on Human Rights, National Security, and Intelligence to investigate the issue for further legislative action.
The study noted that despite fact-checkers debunking the report, Mr Fani-Kayode’s tweet remained visible on his platform as of 6 October 2025. PREMIUM TIMES confirmed the tweet was still available on Fani-Kayode’s Twitter handle as of 17 February 2026.
PREMIUM TIMES contacted the lawmaker for comments on the study’s findings. We called him, sent an email, and texted him, but as of the time of this publication, he has not yet responded.
Media responsibility and the misuse of satire
The study also addresses the implications of the satirical article’s spread from a satire website to blogs and eventually into political debate.
It places responsibility on Nigerian media organisations that failed to verify the information before publication and even repeated it during coverage of parliamentary proceedings.
“The widespread failure of Nigerian media outlets to attribute the original story or their follow-up reports also highlights the need for greater attention to attribution practices and the prevention of plagiarism,” the study notes.
The researcher further raises concerns about the growing practice of disguising false information as satire to generate clicks, warning that it strains audiences’ media literacy, complicates fact-checking efforts and calls into question satire’s status as protected speech.
“Regardless of the intention of the publisher, satirical content has the potential of being mistaken as authentic news and can lead to real-world consequences, as shown in the reaction of the Nigerian Parliament in this case.
“The finding highlights the need to reconsider the place of satire as protected speech, particularly given that falsehoods are knowingly shared under its guise and the audience’s growing inability to differentiate satire from real news,” the study states.
