{"id":13957,"date":"2023-03-12T19:14:44","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T18:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=13957"},"modified":"2023-03-12T19:14:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T18:14:45","slug":"fact-checking-fake-political-endorsements-staged-for-nigerias-presidential-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/fact-checking-fake-political-endorsements-staged-for-nigerias-presidential-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact-checking fake political endorsements staged for Nigeria’s presidential candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On July 14, 2022, a picture of Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria\u2019s former president, and Peter Obi, the Labour Party\u2019s presidential candidate, appeared online. Both political personalities seemed to be chit-chatting at an unknown venue. At the time, Nigeria\u2019s political weather was still cold<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then on July 16 of the same year, a Twitter account operating with the name and cognomen of Mr Obasanjo \u2013 appeared with a controversial tweet<\/strong><\/a>. The Twitter ghost used the trending picture of the duo with this caption:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is not a saint, but among politicians in Nigeria today, Peter Obi is a bundle of integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Mr Obi was beginning to gather momentum for his political ambition. So such a statement attributed to Mr Obasanjo meant an endorsement to many supporters of the LP presidential candidate. The tweet went viral on Twitter with over 30,000 likes and over 8,000 retweets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the claim attributed to Mr Obasanjo about Mr Obi was only concocted to feign the endorsement for him. And in a matter of minutes, hundreds of Twitter users fell for it. But then, Nigerian independent fact-checkers would later debunk the claim, passing a verdict falsifying it. TheCable had contacted Kehinde Akinyemi<\/strong><\/a>, Mr Obasanjo\u2019s spokesman, who dismissed the claim, saying \u201cthe former president did not utter such a statement\u201d and added he does not operate any account on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coincidentally, however, on January 1 this year, <\/strong>Mr Obasanjo officially endorsed Mr Obi<\/strong><\/a>, saying the LP presidential candidate was most preferred to him and urging Nigerians to vote for him as president in the fast-approaching 2023 general election.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a big plus for social media parodists who had promoted false endorsement of Mr Obi, using Mr Obasanjo\u2019s name. They thought this would be an excellent propaganda strategy to adopt, and they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sultan of Sokoto endorsed Obi? No!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On January 19, Osehi Ikhilor, a Facebook user wi<\/strong><\/a>th thousands of followership, announced in a lengthy post that the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa\u2019adu Abubakar, had endorsed Mr Obi as his most preferred candidate. \u201cHold me responsible if Peter Obi didn’t perform well. The problem of the North is from the north, not Peter Obi or an Igbo man. It will be worse and more deadly for the North if Tinubu wins; if they tell you an Igbo man is the problem of Nigeria, tell them Igbo man never rule Nigeria before, and the north is the world poverty capital.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Osehi Ikhilor was among many to share the story on his Facebook account. The post had gone viral on social media with hundreds of engagements from Peter Obi supporters and critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it would soon be clear it was just another fake endorsement for Mr Obi when the sultanate spokesperson, Bashir Adefaka, debunked the claim on January 20. He states, \u201cthe sultan would continue to support all efforts that will lead to the success of the election process. So, let any incoherent claims of naysayers be ignored. The Sultan is not a politician.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IBB endorses Peter Obi \u2014 and other misinformation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After the controversy on Mr Obasanjo\u2019s endorsement of Mr Obi on January 1, a Twitter account purported to be that of a former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, was used to stage fake endorsement claims in favour of the LP presidential candidate.\u00a0 In the tweets, the parodying claims suggested Mr Babangida\u2019s support for Mr Obi.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tweet read in parts, \u201cI am not against any political party or candidate. However, if the reason you want to attain the role of leadership is because you think it\u2019s your turn or it should remain in a certain geo-political zone. You don\u2019t have my support. I am who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 20,000 Twitter users would later like the tweets, and more than 5,000 persons retweeted it while over 800,000 accounts generally viewed the posts. Following the tweets, however, hundreds of Mr Obi\u2019s supporters massively engaged with the tweets from the parody account, praising Mr Babangida for endorsing their candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGen Olusegun Obasanjo will forever be a true elder statesman and a boss in the military. No serving General in the Nigerian Army today joined the military earlier than 1982. By then, Obasanjo had already finished his military career. I respect him a lot, with his endorsement,\u201d the purported tweet also read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But later, on January 7, the media office of Mr Babangida urged Nigerians to disregard any social media account opened in his name. Salman Yusuf, Mr Babangida\u2019s media aid, said in Minna, Niger State, that his principal does not comment on national issues on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wish to state that IBB has never owned nor operated any social media account, and he does not intend to operate any now or in the near future,\u201d a statement by Mr Yusuf reads, urging social media users to ignore \u201cwarped imaginations and antics of cyber criminals who do not mean well for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tinubu’s fake Joe Biden’s endorsement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In November 2022, Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), was seen in a trending photo with Joe Biden, president of the United States.\u00a0 Kenedy Nosa, a Twitter user with thousands of followers<\/strong><\/a> and an ardent supporter of Mr Tinubu\u2019s presidential ambition, promulgated the photo with this caption:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHappening now: @officialABAT on a courtesy visit to US President Joe Biden as part of his US on international engagements. Obidiots say Tinubu cannot visit the US based on his indictment. He is there right now, living with the US President. Let your Obi visit too. Mumu pipo,\u201d the tweet reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, dozens of Mr Tinubu\u2019s supporters claimed the presidential candidate was in an endorsement meeting with Mr Biden. This false narrative trended until AfricaCheck, an independent fact-checking organisation debunked it<\/strong><\/a>, using advanced verification tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AfricaCheck\u2019s google reverse image search led to several media reports that showed the original photo came from a 26 July 2021 meeting between Iraqi prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, and Mr Biden in the president\u2019s White House oval office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are significant variations in picture quality, with the part around Tinubu and the man sitting next to him looking blurry,\u201d the fact-checking medium stated. \u201cObjects behind Tinubu have their edges rough and overlapping in a way that is unnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LGBTQ for Atiku and other false endorsement narratives<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Have you read about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBTQ+) community endorsing Atiku Abubakar? This was false but made believed by supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)\u00a0 and lovers of Mr Abubakar. On February 13, a Facebook page, “Nigerian News Hausa<\/strong><\/a>“, promulgated claims that the LGBTQ members had endorsed the PDP presidential candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, an in-depth online google survey revealed the claim was really unfounded. \u00a0 The same story had been online since 2018 during the last general elections, but no genuine statement from the group to substantiate it. Many of the reports found online quoted sources from fack-checkers \u2014 including AFP <\/strong><\/a>\u2014 had declared were not existing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spreading fake endorsement claims by politicians and their supporters is a practice during election seasons. In 2019, for example, Mr supporter Abubakar\u2019s followers did a similar thing. They had distorted his statement and turned it into a false endorsement narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The then PDP candidate had, in October 2018, expressed excitement about the outcome of his meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. David Oyedepo, the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, had accompanied him to Mr Obasanjo\u2019s residence to seek his acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the meeting, Mr Abubakar would later write on his Twitter page, saying, \u201cit was exciting meeting with my former boss and having lunch with him in Abeokuta\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you for the prayers, Bishop Oyedepo. God bless Nigeria,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, the PDP supporters took this statement by Mr Abubakar as evidence of endorsement by Mr Oyedepo, a renowned Nigerian pastor with thousands of followers. But the bishop denied it, saying he never endorsed the PDP candidate as claimed by his social media fans and adherents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researcher produced this article per the DUBAWA 2023 Kwame Karikari Fellowship partnership with Premium Times to facilitate the ethos of truth in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 14, 2022, a picture of Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria\u2019s former president, and Peter Obi, the Labour Party\u2019s presidential candidate, appeared online. Both political personalities seemed to be chit-chatting at an unknown venue. At the time, Nigeria\u2019s political weather was still cold. Then on July 16 of the same year, a Twitter account operating with the name and cognomen of Mr Obasanjo \u2013 appeared with a controversial tweet. The Twitter ghost used the trending picture of the duo with this caption: \u201cHe is not a saint, but among politicians in Nigeria today, Peter Obi is a bundle of integrity.\u201d At the time, Mr Obi was beginning to gather momentum for his political ambition. So such a statement attributed to Mr Obasanjo meant an endorsement to many supporters of the LP presidential candidate. The tweet went viral on Twitter with over 30,000 likes and over 8,000 retweets. However, the claim attributed to Mr Obasanjo about Mr Obi was only concocted to feign the endorsement for him. And in a matter of minutes, hundreds of Twitter users fell for it. But then, Nigerian independent fact-checkers would later debunk the claim, passing a verdict falsifying it. TheCable had contacted Kehinde Akinyemi, Mr Obasanjo\u2019s spokesman, who dismissed the claim, saying \u201cthe former president did not utter such a statement\u201d and added he does not operate any account on Twitter. Coincidentally, however, on January 1 this year, Mr Obasanjo officially endorsed Mr Obi, saying the LP presidential candidate was most preferred to him and urging Nigerians to vote for him as president in the fast-approaching 2023 general election.\u00a0 This was a big plus for social media parodists who had promoted false endorsement of Mr Obi, using Mr Obasanjo\u2019s name. They thought this would be an excellent propaganda strategy to adopt, and they did. Sultan of Sokoto endorsed Obi? No! On January 19, Osehi Ikhilor, a Facebook user with thousands of followership, announced in a lengthy post that the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa\u2019adu Abubakar, had endorsed Mr Obi as his most preferred candidate. \u201cHold me responsible if Peter Obi didn’t perform well. The problem of the North is from the north, not Peter Obi or an Igbo man. It will be worse and more deadly for the North if Tinubu wins; if they tell you an Igbo man is the problem of Nigeria, tell them Igbo man never rule Nigeria before, and the north is the world poverty capital.\u201d\u00a0 Osehi Ikhilor was among many to share the story on his Facebook account. The post had gone viral on social media with hundreds of engagements from Peter Obi supporters and critics. However, it would soon be clear it was just another fake endorsement for Mr Obi when the sultanate spokesperson, Bashir Adefaka, debunked the claim on January 20. He states, \u201cthe sultan would continue to support all efforts that will lead to the success of the election process. So, let any incoherent claims of naysayers be ignored. The Sultan is not a politician.\u201d IBB endorses Peter Obi \u2014 and other misinformation After the controversy on Mr Obasanjo\u2019s endorsement of Mr Obi on January 1, a Twitter account purported to be that of a former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, was used to stage fake endorsement claims in favour of the LP presidential candidate.\u00a0 In the tweets, the parodying claims suggested Mr Babangida\u2019s support for Mr Obi. The tweet read in parts, \u201cI am not against any political party or candidate. However, if the reason you want to attain the role of leadership is because you think it\u2019s your turn or it should remain in a certain geo-political zone. You don\u2019t have my support. I am who I am.\u201d Over 20,000 Twitter users would later like the tweets, and more than 5,000 persons retweeted it while over 800,000 accounts generally viewed the posts. Following the tweets, however, hundreds of Mr Obi\u2019s supporters massively engaged with the tweets from the parody account, praising Mr Babangida for endorsing their candidate. \u201cGen Olusegun Obasanjo will forever be a true elder statesman and a boss in the military. No serving General in the Nigerian Army today joined the military earlier than 1982. By then, Obasanjo had already finished his military career. I respect him a lot, with his endorsement,\u201d the purported tweet also read. But later, on January 7, the media office of Mr Babangida urged Nigerians to disregard any social media account opened in his name. Salman Yusuf, Mr Babangida\u2019s media aid, said in Minna, Niger State, that his principal does not comment on national issues on social media. \u201cWe wish to state that IBB has never owned nor operated any social media account, and he does not intend to operate any now or in the near future,\u201d a statement by Mr Yusuf reads, urging social media users to ignore \u201cwarped imaginations and antics of cyber criminals who do not mean well for the country.\u201d Tinubu’s fake Joe Biden’s endorsement In November 2022, Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), was seen in a trending photo with Joe Biden, president of the United States.\u00a0 Kenedy Nosa, a Twitter user with thousands of followers and an ardent supporter of Mr Tinubu\u2019s presidential ambition, promulgated the photo with this caption: \u201cHappening now: @officialABAT on a courtesy visit to US President Joe Biden as part of his US on international engagements. Obidiots say Tinubu cannot visit the US based on his indictment. He is there right now, living with the US President. Let your Obi visit too. Mumu pipo,\u201d the tweet reads. Then, dozens of Mr Tinubu\u2019s supporters claimed the presidential candidate was in an endorsement meeting with Mr Biden. This false narrative trended until AfricaCheck, an independent fact-checking organisation debunked it, using advanced verification tools. AfricaCheck\u2019s google reverse image search led to several media reports that showed the original photo came from a 26 July 2021 meeting between Iraqi prime minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, and Mr Biden in the president\u2019s White House oval office. \u201cThere are significant variations in picture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[5,1574,16],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[3794],"class_list":["post-13957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections","category-media-literacy","category-politics"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-3D7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":3794,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"ibrahim-adeyemi","display_name":"Ibrahim Adeyemi","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Presidential-candidates.jpg?fit=1000%2C562&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13959,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13957\/revisions\/13959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13957"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=13957"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=13957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}