Post falsely claims Nigerian president attended G20 summit without invitation

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 8, 2023 at 15:49
2 min read
By Erin FLANAGAN

A social media post shared thousands of times claims that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu attended the 2023 G20 summit hosted in India without being invited. However, AFP Fact Check found the claim to be false. Nigeria, while not a permanent member of the international forum, is one of the nine guest countries at this year’s meeting.

“Nigeria is NOT a member of G20. Tinubu was NOT invited to the summit. Why did he run away four days early? What is he running away from?,” reads a post on X (formerly Twitter) published on September 5, 2023.

A screenshot of the false post, taken on September 8, 2023

The Group of Twenty, or G20, includes 19 permanent member countries and the European Union that meet annually to address significant global economic challenges, including climate, conflict, and development (archived here).

Shared more than 2,300 times, the post includes a graphic from the summit featuring the images of world leaders attending the 2023 edition. Tinubu is not pictured.

The former governor of Lagos state was sworn in as president on May 29, 2023, in an election marred by allegations of widespread voting irregularities and rigging.

On September 6, 2023, a court dismissed all claims by two opposition candidates contesting Tinubu’s election (archived here).

Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party have since vowed to appeal the decision.

Several commenters claimed that Tinubu went to the G20 uninvited to flee ahead of the court decision, in case it ruled his election was illegitimate.

However, the claim is false.

Guest country

Using a keyword search for “Nigeria G20 summit”, AFP Fact Check confirmed that Nigeria is one of the nine guest countries at this year’s G20.

On the official G20 site, Nigeria is listed alongside other invitees, including Singapore and the Netherlands, whose leaders also travelled to India for the summit (archived here and here).

A screenshot of the official G20 site showing Nigeria as a guest country, taken on September 8, 2023

Nigeria released an official statement saying Tinubu was attending “on the special invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

The Nigerian flag pictured (centre) at the G20 summit in India (Money SHARMA / AFP)

Africa’s most populous country is considering applying for membership to the group and is “ascertaining the benefits and risks” of joining as part of Tinubu’s trip (archived here).

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