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Claim: Koiki Media claims the world is banning the Nigerian passport, but the Yorùbá Nation passport now offers free passage in West Africa, Europe, and North America.
Verdict: Although the claim about Nigeria’s passport ban is misleading, the attached photograph of the Yorùbá Nation passport was taken from a Facebook video, edited, and used to push a false narrative.
Full Text
As the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is pushing for independence in the South-East, the Yorùbá Nation secessionist group in the South-West has not ceased its agitation for withdrawal from Nigeria as a country.
Recently, Koiki Media, a platform known for disseminating information about the Yorùbá Nation’s activities, made a post on X and Facebook claiming that countries worldwide are placing bans on the Nigerian passport. However, the Yorùbá Nation passport now offers free passage in West Africa, Europe, and North America. The claimant attached an image of a pedicured hand holding a “diplomatic passport” with the emblem and descriptions of the Yorùbá Nation.
Several users, including Senaike Opeoluwa, have expressed scepticism towards the claim’s authenticity.
“Yoruba diplomatic passport? (I) am just hearing this for the first time,” he wrote in the comment section.
On the other hand, many people also showed support for the development, with users like @Smile39526600 saying, “This is what we all have been waiting for,” and asking how to get their own.
The sentiments are not different on Facebook, where 799 and 84 people have liked and shared the post.
On several occasions, both IPOB and the Yorùbá Nation have been caught in the web of misinformation and disinformation while going about their agenda. DUBAWA conducted this fact check due to the claim’s sensitivity and likelihood of being false.
Verification
As of August 2025, no country has outrightly banned the Nigerian passport apart from the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which have imposed stricter visa rules on Nigerian passport holders.
In fact, data from the July 2025 Henley Passport Index shows Nigeria’s passport has now been placed 88th out of 199 countries. This index report, released on July 18, did not mention a “Yorùbá Nation” passport.
We conducted a reverse image search and traced the attached image to a Facebook video posted on June 22, 2025. We took a screenshot and compared it side by side with the one in the claim under verification. This revealed some similar and distorted features.
In the video’s opening seconds, a hand is seen holding a Nigerian passport with the inscription “Economic Community of West African States” at the top and “Republic of Nigeria” at the bottom. A white slip, likely a boarding pass, is tucked inside the passport.
In the photo used in the claim, where the same hand held the Yorùbá Nation passport, both the top and bottom inscriptions were exchanged for “DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT” and “YORUBA NATION, ORÍLẸ̀ ÈDE YORÙBÁ” respectively.
In addition, we found a visible zigzag distortion on the top right corner of the passport, with the ECOWAS emblem and bottom inscription swapped out for the Yorùbá Nation logo. The colour of the original version was also distorted to support the narrative.
Conclusion
The claim that Nigeria’s passport is banned is misleading. Likewise, the Yorùbá Nation passport photo was taken from a Facebook video, altered, and circulated to back the claim.
