Misleading post claims Nigerian traditional ruler rejected Bola Tinubu's election win

“ONII OF IFE DON COME OUT SAY TINUBU NO WIN THE ELECTION -HE WAS SELECTED,” reads a Facebook post published on April 26, 2023 and which has been shared more than 540 times.

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A screenshot of the misleading claim, taken on May 5, 2023

"ONII OF IFE" refers to Ogunwusi, the top-ranking traditional ruler of the Yoruba kingdom in southwest Nigeria.

The account behind the tweet regularly shares content in support of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

The post includes a four-minute video in which a man speaking in pidgin urges “Obidients” -- meaning Obi supporters -- to listen to what Ogunwusi had to say, claiming that the traditional king questioned the outcome of the election because the number of people who voted against Tinubu was higher than the number who voted for him.

With the man still visible in the top-half of the video, a clip appears at the bottom frame showing the traditional ruler wearing white attire and a white crown.

He says: "It's a very humbling result...a very, very humbling result. And what do I mean? The people that did not vote for him, I mean, the electorate were actually more than the people that voted for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu."

Ogunwusi had led several traditional rulers in the Yoruba-speaking region of southwest Nigeria to endorse Tinubu (archived here) during the presidential campaign.

Video from TVC interview

Using the InVID-WeVerify tool to run reverse image searches on frames from the clip, AFP Fact Check found the original video (archived here) of the traditional ruler answering questions on a live television programme.

In the full interview, while he calls the result of the election "humbling," at no point does he say that Tinubu did not win the election nor that he was “selected”.

He also says he is "very happy" that Tinubu won.

Vote rigging claims

Final presidential results (archived here) released by Nigeria’s electoral commission show that Tinubu received 8.8 million votes, while his closest rival Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the People's Democratic Party, gathered 6.9 million votes, and Labour Party’s Obi had 6.1 million votes.

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Screnshot showing results of the presidential election from Nigeria's electoral commission

Taken together, the votes for the two main opposition candidates totalled about 13 million.

But the main opposition candidates, Obi and Abubakar, argued that widespread irregularities and rigging marred the election.

Both men have petitioned the election tribunal (archived here), with each claiming to have won.

Nigeria's electoral commission has denied any illegal activity, although it has acknowledged technical problems (archived here) with the voting machines.