A new analysis has unveiled how Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria's ex-Minister of Aviation and a recent nominee for an ambassadorial position, propagated a fabricated narrative that created a misperception in the Nigerian media as well as among members of the House of Representatives.
The study, titled "7,221 Refrigerated Human Penises: Analyzing the Nigerian Media's Inability to Authenticate a Sensational, 'Credible' Satirical Account," was carried out by journalist Kemi Busari and published in the Journal of Media Ethics.
According to the research, on April 13, 2021, at precisely 4:42 PM local time, the former aviation minister tweeted claiming that a Nigerian vessel was caught trying to smuggle thousands of dismembered human penises to China.
The investigation traced Fani-Kayode's source to a satirical website known as the World News Daily Report (WNDR), which is recognized for sharing fictionalized satire under the tagline “where facts don’t matter.” This platform, managed by Canadians Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, has faced legal challenges regarding its dissemination of misleading information.
The WNDR article, dated March 19, 2021, claimed that more than 7,000 human penises from Nigeria were intercepted on their way to China, allegedly concealed within “36 boxes labelled as plantains.” The report exaggerated their worth to more than $1.15 billion, with estimates of $160,000 per organ in the black market.
Additionally, the article suggested that the Chinese government confiscated the ship after an anonymous tip-off and apprehended “four Nigerians, two Malians, and two persons from Cameroon.” The article wrongly affiliated the notification of the seizure with Chinese Customs spokesman, Li Wu.
When Fani-Kayode tweeted on April 13, 2021, linking the incident to terrorism, he stated: "A ship from Nigeria has been seized in China while attempting to smuggle in 7,200 penises. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerian penises are smuggled into China on an annual basis. Nigeria is the world’s leading exporter of penises, which explains the prevalent incident of kidnappings and ritual slayings in our country."
Although Fani-Kayode passed off his tweet without citing any source, the details were notably lifted directly from the WNDR article.
Following his claims, at least 29 media organizations in Nigeria, including blogs and content aggregators, replicated the misleading story while crediting Fani-Kayode as a credible authority, as noted in the research.
At the time of his tweet, Fani-Kayode's X account boasted over 1 million followers, and the post rapidly gained traction, significantly contributing to the story's visibility among Nigerian press outlets that might not have seen the original WNDR article.
His tweet sparked a nationwide discourse, even capturing the attention of the House of Representatives, which debated a motion concerning the alleged exportation of human penises.
The legislative body assigned its committees on Human Rights, National Security, and Intelligence to delve into the matter for further legislative actions.
The research highlighted that even after fact-checkers actively dismissed these claims, Fani-Kayode's tweet remained visible on his platform as of October 6, 2025, and was still noted to be on his Twitter account as of February 17, 2026.
In response to the study's conclusions, PREMIUM TIMES sought comments from Fani-Kayode regarding the findings. We made several attempts via phone, email, and text, but he had not replied by the time of this report.
Moreover, the analysis discusses the implications of satirical content transitioning from a satirical platform to blogs and finally into political dialogues. It criticizes Nigerian media outlets that neglected to validate information before publication and propagated it during coverage of the parliamentary sessions.
The investigation underscores the largescale failure by these media outlets to source or credit the initial story, emphasizing the need for heightened awareness regarding citation protocols and the avoidance of plagiarism.
The researcher expresses concerns over the increasing trend of concealing falsehoods as satirical content for clickbait purposes, cautioning that this diminishes media literacy among audiences, complicating efforts to verify facts and challenging the classification of satire as protected expression.
The findings urge a reevaluation of satire’s role as protected speech, given the pervasive sharing of false information masquerading as satire and the growing difficulty for audiences to distinguish between satire and legitimate news.
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