Post falsely claims video shows Nigerian military band rehearsing for presidential swearing-in

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 4, 2023 at 15:24
3 min read
By Tonye BAKARE, AFP Nigeria

Ahead of the May inauguration of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s new leader, a video has been shared on social media with claims that it shows a Nigerian military band rehearsing for the occasion. But the claim is false: the video shows a Ghanaian military band rehearsing a Nigerian hit song ahead of the country’s independence day celebrations.

“Joint armed forces band practicing for the swearing in of the first city boy to become Nigeria’s President (sic),” reads a tweet shared on March 20, 2023.

“City Boy” is a nickname that refers to Tinubu, who will be sworn in on May 29, 2023, succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari.

A screenshot of the false tweet, taken on April 28, 2023

Retweeted more than 110 times, the tweet was published by a known supporter of Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress. It includes a video showing uniformed military forces playing musical instruments.

Before 1999, when Nigeria returned to democracy, military regimes held sway for decades, including a junta led by Buhari (archived here). The country has seen six coups, most of them bloody, since its independence in 1960 (archived here).

Armed forces are a fixture at inaugurations of national and state governments in Nigeria (archived here), and they are expected to be part of Tinubu’s ceremony.

The Nigerian army has an official band corps (archived here), which regularly performs at events.

But the claim that the video shows the Nigerian military rehearsing for the upcoming inauguration is false.

Video from Ghana

The clip in the false tweet features the name of a TikTok account that no longer exists. But a keyword search revealed another TikTok handle called “danielamartey685” where the same video was shared on March 11, 2023 (archived here).

Next to an emoji of the Ghanaian flag, the caption on the original clip reads: “Tell them we are coming”.

In the false tweet, however, the Ghanaian flag emoji is obscured with a green mark.

A screenshot shows a green mark covering the Ghana flag emoji, taken on May 2, 2023

A few days earlier on March 6, 2023, a YouTube channel that posts military clips also shared the video. The caption explains that it shows the Ghanaian military performing “Buga”, a hit song by Nigerian Afrobeats star Kizz Daniel.

The colours and insignia of the Ghana Armed Forces can be seen displayed on a wall 43 seconds into the video.

A screenshot shows the colour and logo of the Ghanaian military, taken on April 29, 2023

Another Ghanaian YouTube channel shared another video of people dressed in military uniform performing the song at a stadium.

Officials wearing the blue uniforms of Ghana's police can be seen in both videos.

The caption explains that the footage shows the “Ghana Armed Forces band” playing the song “as they rehearse towards the Independence Day Celebration.”

Ghana's 66th independence anniversary was celebrated on March 6, 2023 (archived here).

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