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Claim: A viral clip on Facebook and WhatsApp shows foreign students protesting and calling Nigeria’s president a thief.
Verdict: True. In August, students protested outside the Nigerian High Commission in London against President Tinubu’s anti-poor policies, demanding the release of Nigerians arrested during the #EndBadGovernance protest in Nigeria.
Full Text
In August 2024, Nigeria witnessed a series of protests as citizens took to the streets, expressing their frustrations over increasing economic hardships and calling for urgent government intervention. Protests often draw widespread attention, especially in a country where the public is eager for any sign of change or response to their demands. It is, therefore, no surprise that videos purporting to show protests or demonstrations resonate with Nigerian audiences, sparking discussions across social media.
Recently, a video began circulating online, allegedly showing foreign students protesting and accusing President Bola Tinubu of theft. The 19-second clip featured a mix of white and black individuals holding placards with the chant, “When I say Tinubu, you say thief.”
The video spread across platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook, with multiple shares and engagements (see links here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).
The post that particularly drew DUBAWA’s attention was shared by Sahara Reporters, a platform known for promoting misleading narratives, which raised further suspicion about the video’s authenticity.
Published on Oct. 6, 2024, the post by Sahara Reporters had amassed 1,300 likes, 527 comments, 350 shares, and 53,900 plays by the time it was reviewed. Reactions varied, with users like @BabangidaIbrahim commenting, “Thiefnubu is now recognised as an international thief. After just a year and a half in power, what an achievement.”
Another user, @HenryOghifo, expressed frustration,
“We have the worst generation of students and undergraduates in the history of Nigeria. Imagine, not one campus was captured on camera protesting hunger and bad governance during the 1 October nationwide protest. Didn’t NANS see students in America protesting the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza on campus grounds?”
In contrast, @Ibrahim Muhammed speculated, “This was sponsored by Atiku Abubakar.”
However, not everyone agreed. As @Nwudu Austin wrote, “This is a Fake video. No foreign national has the right to insult our president. Yes, we are not happy with his policies, but he is still our president.”
Screenshot of the viral video.
The video gained significant attention, with many sharing it as evidence of international condemnation of President Tinubu’s actions. Yet, a closer examination of the video raised doubts about its authenticity.
Several elements cast suspicion on the claim. Firstly, some placards held by the protesters bore messages that didn’t seem to align with the claim, Nigeria or its president, with one reading, “Fight for socialism, Socialist Students,” and another, “Drop all charges and release protesters.” Furthermore, the audio did not align with the crowd’s energy in the footage, suggesting a potential mismatch.
Given these inconsistencies, DUBAWA launched an investigation into the video’s authenticity.
Verification
Using a screenshot from the clip, we searched Google Lens, which resulted in many random images and videos that did not match the intended query.
For more specific results, DUBAWA used keywords from the placards and conducted an advanced search. This eventually led to Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) accounts named Socialist Students, which featured the same colours and logo as those used by the protesters in the clip.
The Socialist Students account, based in the United Kingdom, describes itself as a campaigning organisation fighting against cuts, fees, war, racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Further searches led to a published report containing the exact image from the protest. The report detailed that a group of London students, including Nigerian, British, and international students, protested outside the Nigerian High Commission to condemn the country’s “anti-poor” policies and demand the release of political prisoners. Inspired by the #EndBadGovernance movement in Nigeria, the demonstration highlighted the plight of activists arrested during mass protests in August.
The search added that Socialist Students supported the protest organised by Nigeria Solidarity UK. In a statement, they expressed solidarity with workers and young people in Nigeria against the repressive measures of the Tinubu government. Protesters were reported to have received a positive response from High Commission staff, with one member even encouraging them to continue their efforts.
The protesters said Nigeria’s ongoing political and economic crisis has impacted international students, leading to higher tuition fees and the risk of exclusion. This issue has fueled further activism, with Socialist Students previously campaigning against the deportation of Nigerian students unable to afford their education.
An X user, Francis Nwapa, confirmed the incident in a tweet, stating: “A group of socialist students were in front of the Nigerian High Commission, WC2N 5BX, in London today, staging a protest against @officialABAT’s anti-poor policies and demanding that all trumped-up charges against Nigerians who were illegally arrested, detained, and incarcerated be dropped.” Vanguard News also shared a similar report.
The X account of Socialist Students also reshared the clip originally posted by Sahara Reporters, further confirming that it is the same incident.
While different social media posts show that the incident occurred, many reputable media platforms did not report it.
We also conducted a keyword search on YouTube to find the video or any version of it. We found a version by Naija Library from three weeks ago and reactionary videos by African-German First Lady TV and Spicechanneltv.
Lastly, Deepware.ai was used to scrutinise the video and the results were positive. Upon further examination of the results, the tool provided a detailed percentage breakdown indicating the video’s authenticity level. The breakdown included Deepware at 5%, Saferbekov at 10%, and Ensemble at 15%. These are sub-tools employed by deepware.ai to assess the likelihood of a video being fabricated.
In simpler terms, the tool suggests that the clip did not detect elements of a deepfake.
Conclusion
DUBAWA’s findings confirm that the protest in question did take place. It was organised by Nigeria Solidarity UK with support from Socialist Students against the “repressive” measures of Tinubu’s government.
