CLAIM: Viral media posts claim that Pastor Tunde Bakare declares himself as the next Nigeria’s president in 2023.
FALSE: Pastor Tunde Bakare did declare himself as the next Nigerian President but it was in 2018, before the 2019 general election. Additionally, he does have an alibi as he was in attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in the US. This is confirmed by some media reports that place him in New York this week gone by.
Full Text:
On September 22nd, a viral video of the Senior Pastor and founder of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare was widely circulated on social media over the weekend. The video has already been viewed over 6K times with 144 retweets and 176 likes. In the video shared by a Twitter user, the pastor was seen saying he will be the next Nigeria’s next president after President Muhammadu Buhari. The excerpt of the video read thus:
“Take it to the mountaintop, if you have never heard it before, I’m saying it to you this morning, in the scheme of things as far as politics (sic) of Nigeria is concern, President Muhammadu Buhari is number 15 and yours sincerely is number 16…”
Pastor Tunde Bakare
Naijaloaded, everyeveryng odinceblog and some other Nigerian blogs aided in the story’s circulation. They all claimed the video emanated from the Pastors sermon on Sunday. More so, several news platforms also reported on the story.
Verification:
Findings revealed that the video in question emanated from a Sunday sermon on February 18, 2018 which was published three days later. This is evidenced by a youtube search which provided the church’s youtube page- LRAGlobal Online. However, the video was subsequently removed.
Regardless, looking closely at the video, you see the caption: “2019- PASTOR TUNDE BAKARE FOR PRESIDENT”. This alludes to the fact that he was referring to the 2019 elections just gone by. More so, there was no mention of the 2023 in the video contrary to several media reports.
Platforms like the Guardian and Tribune online have also conducted fact checks on the claim; all arriving with the same verdict.
Additionally, a member of the Latter Rain church disclosed to Tribune Online that the video in circulation was an old video from the pastor’s sermon last year. He said the pastor was not even in church last Sunday as claimed by most of the blogs; he was in the US attending the UN General Assembly (UNGA 74).
In the same vein, news reports by PM news and the Punch place Pastor Bakare in New York this week; further corroborating the preceding stance.
Conclusion:
The claim is FALSE as sources place Pastor Bakare in the US when the claim was made. Additionally, in the video the caption alludes to the 2019 elections; there was no mention of 2023- verbally or graphically. More so, findings show the video was recorded a year ago, although it has been taken down.
It has been observed that people often recycle old videos to stir up conflict, as in this instance. However, you are advised to always verify any video before resharing.
This fact-check was done by a Dubawa Fact-checking Fellow in collaboration with The Tribune Online, the online publication of the oldest surviving newsroom in Nigeria. To see this article and others, click here.
