Did Obasanjo claim Igbos control Lagos through ownership and investment?

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Rejoice Taddy

Claim: An Instagram post alleged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo said the Igbos don’t need to fight the Yorubas to “win Lagos,” as most Yorubas live in Igbo-owned houses, and that Lagos would be “empty overnight” if Igbos withdrew their support.

Verdict: False. No credible report or statement supports this. The link attached to the post redirects to random, unrelated Facebook pages. Domain checks also show it’s from a newly registered, unverified site.

Full Text

One of the most common tactics for spreading misinformation online is attaching false or exaggerated statements to respected public figures, as people tend to trust leaders, especially former presidents or well-known politicians. These fake quotes spread quickly and are often accepted as truth. Over the years, this tactic has been used to influence public opinion and fuel political debates in Nigeria.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has been a frequent target of such false claims. DUBAWA has, on several occasions, verified and debunked statements wrongly attributed to him here and here. 

An Instagram user, @Omalain_cribs, claimed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo made comments about the relationship between the Igbo and Yoruba communities in Lagos State.

According to the post, Obasanjo allegedly said, “The Igbos don’t need to fight the Yorubas in Lagos to win Lagos.” He was also quoted as saying that all the Igbos need to do is ask Yoruba tenants to vacate their houses, terminate their employment where they served as employers, and withdraw them from managing lands as caretakers.

The post attributed further remarks to the former president, claiming he said most Yorubas living in Lagos are tenants in Igbo-owned properties, and that Igbo people now control a greater part of the city through ownership and investment. 

The supposed statement ended with Obasanjo allegedly saying, “Peace is not weakness, but when you provoke a people who built your comfort, you risk losing it all.”

As of Oct. 20, 2025, the post had 9,169 likes, 1,460 comments, and 243 reposts. 

We reviewed the comments to see what people who responded had to say.

@Nebs1881, for instance, wrote, “Hard to believe such words are coming from an elder statesman. Truly disappointing.”

 @UchennaOkundu replied, “Divide and rule. See politicians using y’all to achieve their aims. Nigerian citizens better borrow sense, they are just playing you against each other for political purposes, love yourselves and fight this bad government together.”

@Tutuh212  asked, “Did Obasanjo really say this?”

@Ladyeki, excited, said, “He couldn’t have said it better. Some people will not be happy with this information.”

Knowing that this is not the first time false claims have been linked to Obasanjo and considering the statement’s unusual nature, the level of engagement it received, and its potential to mislead people if untrue, we decided to verify it.

Verification

DUBAWA conducted a keyword search using the alleged quote and its variations, such as “Obasanjo Igbos Lagos tenants” and “Obasanjo on Yoruba and Igbo in Lagos.” The search yielded no credible reports, press statements, or news coverage from any reputable Nigerian news outlet. 

DUBAWA also reviewed recent news reports and public engagements involving the former president. As of Oct. 18, 2025, Obasanjo’s latest public appearances included the Abeokuta Book Conference and the Youth Leadership Dialogue, both held in Ogun State, where his speeches focused primarily on youth development, governance, and African unity. No mention of ethnic relations in Lagos or similar remarks was made in any of those appearances.

From the Instagram post shared by @Omalain_cribs, we found a link that the user claimed would provide more details about the statement allegedly made by Olusegun Obasanjo. To verify this, we used Google Search to trace where and when it had appeared online. Instead of leading to a credible source or a recognised news platform where such a statement might have been published, the search results showed multiple Facebook and Instagram posts using the same link.

Each of these posts contained different and unrelated stories, ranging from political commentary to viral entertainment content. None of the posts mentioned Obasanjo or bore any connection to the claim shared on Instagram. See post samples here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

We contacted former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, who dismissed the claim as false. Akinyemi explained that the statement attributed to the former president never occurred and urged anyone who comes across such information to disregard it.

Lastly, we conducted a domain search using Whois lookup to trace its registration details. The results showed that the website was registered on Oct. 2, 2024, last updated on Sept. 2, 2025, and is set to expire in Oct. 2026. The domain’s short registration period, recent updates, and lack of publicly available ownership details indicate that it is not associated with any reputable media organisation. These findings further undermine the credibility of the link and confirm that it does not originate from a credible source.

Conclusion

The claim falls flat. There is no proof, no trace, and no truth. The supposed quote has no verifiable source and, like many before it, survives only through social media repetition, not fact.