Claim: An image posted on Facebook by Born 2 Blog shows Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sitting beside British-Nigerian boxer Anthony Joshua on a hospital bed. The post implies that the president visited him after a recent accident.
Verdict False! The photograph is doctored. While Joshua was injured in a car crash and admitted to a hospital, there is no official record of President Tinubu visiting him at the hospital. Multiple media reports, however, suggested that President Tinubu placed a call to the boxer to check on him and wish him a speedy recovery.
Full Text
Anthony Joshua, a British-Nigerian former heavyweight boxing champion, was involved in a serious car accident on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on December 29, 2025, which killed two of his associates and left him with injuries. Local officials confirmed that he was treated in the hospital and later discharged.
Subsequently, a viral Facebook image purports to show President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sitting beside Anthony Joshua while the boxer was in the hospital recuperating from the accident. The picture has since garnered over 31,000 engagements, including comments and shares. Similar claims bearing the same photos can be seen here, here, and here.
Viral photo showing Tinubu’s visit to Anthony Joshua in the hospital – Born 2 Blog.
DUBAWA decided to investigate this claim because it could be misleading.
Verification
To verify the claim, DUBAWA checked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Official X (formerly Twitter) handle, where the presidency regularly disseminates official information and engages with the public.
DUBAWA’s findings reveal no posts, photos, or videos indicating that President Tinubu physically visited Anthony Joshua in the hospital. Instead, we found only a public message from the President stating that he had spoken with Anthony Joshua personally. He conveyed condolences over the death of Joshua’s two close associates, Kevin Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami, who died in the recent accident. In the same message, President Tinubu wished the boxer a full and speedy recovery and stated that he prayed with him.
DUBAWA also reviewed reports from verified Nigerian media outlets, which consistently showed that the President’s message on his X handle was the only official engagement reported regarding Anthony Joshua’s condition. No credible media report confirmed a hospital visit by the President. These reports can be found here, here, and here.
To further verify the viral image allegedly showing President Tinubu sitting beside Anthony Joshua on a hospital bed, DUBAWA subjected the image to AI-image detection analysis using Hive Moderation, a widely used AI content detection tool. The analysis returned a 95% probability that the image contains AI-generated or deepfake content, strongly indicating it is not authentic.
Screenshot of the AI-Analysis from Hive Moderation
Conclusion
The viral claim made by Born to Blog is false. The image showing President Tinubu sitting beside Anthony Joshua in the hospital is AI-generated and not authentic. Further review of the President’s social media platforms for his official activities and a review of reputable media platforms in Nigeria have proven the claim to be false.
