In recent days, a video commentary in a Facebook program, "Fashin Baƙi", by a lawyer, Audu Bulama Bukarti has been making the rounds on social media, drawing an emotive—and, frankly, deeply flawed—comparison between two unrelated tragedies: the number of deaths in Gaza from January to June 2025 (reported at 74) and the number of malnutrition-related child deaths in Katsina State over a similar six-month period.
Bukarti further inflamed the discussion by suggesting that Governor Dikko Umaru Radda’s display of emotion at the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari was somehow proof of selective empathy—because the governor did not “cry” over the 652 malnourished children who died in the state. According to Bukarti, the reason is that these children were “the children of the poor.”
Such commentary is not only unfair, it is a textbook case of how media narratives can be skewed to incite public anger rather than inform the public truthfully and responsibly.
False Equivalence and Dangerous Comparisons
Comparing the deaths of children due to malnutrition in Katsina State to casualties in a war zone like Gaza is a false equivalence. Gaza’s deaths are the result of targeted military actions, displacement, and direct violence. Katsina’s malnutrition crisis, while tragic, stems from a complex web of factors—poverty, insecurity disrupting farming, climate change impacts on food production, inadequate healthcare access, and other socio-economic challenges common across the Sahel region.
To equate these contexts is to deliberately ignore the root causes and the broader socio-political realities. It also risks reducing a nuanced, long-term developmental challenge to an emotional soundbite designed for outrage clicks.
Selective Storytelling: Ignoring Efforts on the Ground
One of the most troubling aspects of Bukarti’s commentary is the complete omission of the state government’s ongoing efforts to combat malnutrition and its root causes. Ethical journalism demands balance—reporting not only on the problem but also on the solutions being pursued.
The Katsina State Government, under Governor Radda’s leadership, has not sat idle:
Nutrition Response: Partnering with UNICEF and other agencies to scale up Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programmes, supply ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), and expand nutrition surveillance.
Tackling Root Causes:
Security Operations: Intensifying anti-banditry measures to restore farming access in rural areas.
Agricultural Support: Distributing farm inputs and implements to boost food production and reduce dependency on aid.
Social Intervention Programs: Direct cash transfers, school feeding initiatives, and women/youth empowerment schemes targeting vulnerable families.
Healthcare Access: Expanding primary health centres and maternal-child health services, particularly in rural communities.
Omitting these facts from public commentary is a disservice to the audience and erodes trust in media discourse.
On the Governor’s “Tears”
Emotions are personal, and public displays of them are not an objective measure of leadership commitment. Governor Radda’s grief at the passing of former President Muhammadu Buhari and elder statesman—someone he knew personally—does not translate into apathy toward malnourished children. Leadership is demonstrated through action, not performative emotion. The real metric should be: What has the governor’s administration done to address malnutrition? On that score, the record shows a government working within its means and in partnership with national and international stakeholders to confront a daunting crisis.
Why Journalistic Fairness Matters
As someone who has spent a lifetime in media, I am concerned about a growing trend where commentary is shaped to provoke anger without providing context or acknowledging counterbalancing facts. This is neither fair to the public nor in line with journalistic ethics.
We owe our audiences a complete picture—not selective outrage. By failing to mention the state’s efforts, commentaries like Bukarti’s risk undermining genuine work on the ground and turning complex issues into politicised talking points.
Final Word:
Malnutrition in Katsina State is a tragedy that demands urgent and sustained action—and the government is already on that path. But it is also a challenge that cannot be solved by vilifying leadership through flawed comparisons and sensational narratives. As media practitioners and commentators, our duty is to illuminate, not to inflame; to inform, not to mislead.
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