Parody tweet leads to false claim former Nigerian military leader endorsed opposition candidate

“Few days after Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo endorsed Peter Obi to be the next president of Nigeria, IBB, former Head of States of Nigeria supports Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo on his endorsement (sic),” reads an Instagram post published on January 3, 2023.

The initials IBB refer to the former head of state Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

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A screenshot of the false Instagram post, taken on January 3, 2023

Liked more than 27,000 times, the post features several images, including one with photos of Babangida and Obi captioned “Babangida endorses Peter Obi”, as well as a screenshot of a tweet from a Twitter account called “Ibrahim B. Babangida”.

The Instagram account, which has more than four million followers, openly supports Obi.

Other Facebook accounts posted similar claims (here and here).

Babangida was Nigeria’s head of state between 1985 and 1993, after overthrowing the regime of the then major-general Muhammadu Buhari. The 81-year-old said in an interview in January 2022 that Buhari’s successor should not be as old as Babangida himself and must command the respect of the people.

Buhari, 80, leaves office on May 29, 2023. Obi, 61, is the youngest candidate among the three frontrunners to succeed him. The other two are Atiku Abubakar, 76, of the leading opposition People’s Democratic Party and Bola Tinubu, 70, of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Despite not holding any elected office since 1993, Babangida remains influential.

In September 2022, Obi and his running mate Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed visited the retired general at his home in Minna, northcentral Nigeria.

But the claim that Babangida endorsed Obi for president in a tweet is false.

Parody tweet

The tweet in question came from an account called “Ibrahim B. Babangida.” The bio clearly states that it is a parody account.

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A screenshot showing the Twitter account’s bio before it was modified, taken on January 3, 2023.

Until at least January 3, the bio also stated that the account did not belong to the former Nigerian military leader. The word “not” has since been removed.

Moreover, the tweet from the parody account that was used in the false Instagram post did not expressly endorse Obi. Rather, it praised Obasanjo’s presidency and his decision to back Obi.

A media aide for Babangida, Kassim Afegbua, told local news outlet The Cable that Babangida has not endorsed Obi, noting that “IBB does not have a Twitter handle nor Facebook” account.