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Claim: President Tinubu condemned BBC over T.B. Joshua’s documentary.
Verdict: False. DUBAWA’s analysis identifies the video as unrelated to the narrative and has been digitally fabricated.
Full Text
Following the release of a scathing documentary of the late founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Temitope Joshua, by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), a user on Instagram has posted that Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has condemned the makers of the documentary.
In the nearly one-minute video posted by the user, Sylvester Lumenchristi_eboh, President Tinubu can be heard refuting the integrity of the video and hinging its existence on a somewhat flawed aversion for the late clergyperson.
“As the president of Nigeria, (I) reject every documentary and evidence made by the BBC against our noble prophet. Prophet T.B. Joshua was a good man, and he brought so many foreigners into Lagos while I was a governor. They hate him because he is from a black country,” President Tinubu was heard saying.
The video post has generated about 666 likes and 25 comments as of Friday, January 19, 2024. Opinions on the video were divided among users, with some believing it to be authentic and others considering it inauthentic.
“Nice one, (Mr) President.” Sanusirufus commented.
“This is not (President) Tinubu’s voice. You guys (won’t) stop all this fake news,” Ismailyusuf913 dismissed.
Due to the video’s controversy and its sensitivity, DUBAWA decided to verify its authenticity.
Verification
DUBAWA analysed the video composition and its frames, and findings revealed the supposed video of President Tinubu was edited to suit the alleged narrative. Noticeably, the details of the president, as depicted in the video, appear to fade in an unnatural way typical of deepfakes or edited videos. Another alarming red flag was the evident lack of quality in the visuals; the blurry and shady nature suggests the video was compressed to be easily spread on social media.
DUBAWA also tracked down the original version of the video in which the president conveyed his Happy New Year wishes to the nation. The president did not reference the late Pastor or the viral documentary in his speech. Moreover, the original video was recorded three weeks ago, on Jan. 1st, 2024, before the BBC released the documentary.
Other visible traces of manipulation in the alleged video are the asynchronisation (out of synch) speech utterance, as the president’s words were not in harmony with the movement of his lips. Another thing worthy of note is the unshadowed clarity and image properties of the original video, a characteristic the cloned version lacks.
Finally, DUBAWA also noted that no credible media outlet had reported any reaction by President Tinubu to the widely controversial BBC documentary on the SCOAN prophet.
Conclusion
The claim is false. Critical video analysis has found the video to have traces of a deepfake.
