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Claim: A Facebook user shared a video purportedly showing President Bola Tinubu confronting Atiku Abubakar over the latter’s efforts to uncover Tinubu’s records in the United States.
Verdict: False. The video is AI-generated. No such confrontation between Tinubu and Atiku took place. DUBAWA found that political aides on both sides have given public statements over Tinubu’s US records disputes.
Full Text
A fabricated video can travel faster than the truth it distorts, and in the heat of Nigeria’s build-up to the 2027 elections, people are weaponising that speed. Political rivals and social media users increasingly stage confrontations online using old or out-of-context clips and AI-generated videos.
DUBAWA has debunked many such claims here and here.
A Facebook user, @Naija SolihmarsTv, recently shared a video (archived here) claiming it shows President Bola Tinubu confronting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his efforts to uncover Tinubu’s records in the United States. In the video, Atiku says he wants Nigerians to know who their president was before he joined politics.
The post was captioned, “Tinubu challenges Atiku on his US record.”
As DUBAWA watched the 20-second video, we heard the following exchange. Tinubu opened by saying, “Atiku, what is all this thing you are doing? Why are you desperate?”
Atiku then replied, “Desperate how? What am I doing?”
Tinubu then continued, “First of all, why are you digging my past US record?”
Atiku still responded, “This is not personal. I just feel like Nigerians need to know who their president was before he joined politics.”
Tinubu then said, “Oh really, so it is only during the election period that you can do this. You did this in 2022/2023.”
Atiku then ended by saying, “This is politics.”
As of Sept. 19, 2026, the post had over 51,000 likes, 386 comments, 3,000 shares, and 5 million views.
We assessed the comments to understand other users’ thoughts. While some believed the video was genuine, others questioned its authenticity.
One user, Eloka Peter, wrote, “Tinubu’s strategy is to squeeze opposition parties, but Atiku Abubakar’s strategy is to dig up big chief Tinubu’s record in America.”
Adamu Shuaibu replied, “This is fraud, because both people are not clean. Atiku is desperate.”
Lateef Abiola concluded, “No chance for Tinubu again. Bye bye.”
The same video was also shared here, here, and here.
The claim had spread widely, and the confusion it could create among Nigerians who rely on social media for political news made it necessary for DUBAWA to verify it.
Verification
DUBAWA found a genuine, ongoing dispute between the Nigerian presidency and Atiku’s camp over records tied to Tinubu’s history in the United States. According to a BusinessDay report, Atiku engaged a Washington-based lobbying firm, Von Batten-Montague-York, in a $1.2 million deal, disclosed under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Afterwards, the firm began circulating US Department of Justice records related to a 1993 civil forfeiture case involving $460,000 connected to an account in Tinubu’s name.
DUBAWA found that this dispute has been conducted entirely through public statements issued by aides on both sides, not through any direct, filmed confrontation between Tinubu and Atiku. On Atiku’s side, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said on Sept. 2, 2026, that the presidency should address the American records rather than attack Atiku’s lobbyist.
On the presidency’s side, Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, accused Atiku’s camp of “weaponising historical records for electoral purposes,” as the Leadership reports. Neither camp’s statements refer to any in-person or filmed exchange between the two principals of the kind shown in the video.
A frame-by-frame review also found visual inconsistencies typical of AI-generated content. In one frame, Atiku’s hand shows fingers that are blurred and merged rather than remaining anatomically distinct. In another moment, Tinubu’s pointing hand appears smeared and indistinct even though the fabric of his sleeve directly beside it remains sharp and in focus, a mismatch not common with genuine camera footage.
To confirm this, DUBAWA subjected the video to further analysis using dedicated AI-detection tools.
DUBAWA first analysed the video using Hive.ai, an AI-detection tool, which indicated a 92.8% probability that the content is AI-generated.
We further examined the video with Zhuque AI Detection Assistant. The tool scored it 86.01 per cent, a result suggesting a strong possibility of AI-generated or altered content.
DUBAWA conducted an Error Level Analysis (ELA) using a screenshot from the video, and it returned patches on the image. This usually indicates that the image has been altered from its original form.
DUBAWA also took a screenshot of the video and ran it through a Google Lens search, since the video itself was not authentic footage. The search led to a previously published photograph of Tinubu and Atiku, which appeared in reports by ARISE News, Telescope Nigeria, and TheCable.
Apart from these, we found no evidence that an original video of the encounter exists, suggesting the circulating clip was digitally manipulated using the still image as its source.
Conclusion
While a real dispute is indeed playing out between Tinubu and Atiku’s camps over US records concerning the president, only aides of the two warring politicians have made public statements about the dispute. The video claiming to show such a confrontation is AI-generated and does not depict an actual event. Thus, the claim is false.