Clip purporting to show Nigerian president disputing BBC exposé of church founder is doctored

“TINUBU REJECTS TB JOSHUA DOCUMENTARY BY BBC,” reads the caption on a Facebook reel published in Nigeria on January 16, 2024. It has since been shared more than 7,000 times.

The footage shows the Nigerian president addressing the camera.

“I, the President of Nigeria, reject every document and evidence made by the BBC against our noble prophet. Prophet TB Joshua was a good man. And he brought many foreigners to Lagos while I was governor. They hate him because he is from a black country,” a voice purported to be that of Tinubu can be heard saying in the video.

The clip was also shared on Instagram and TikTok.

Titled “The Cult of TB Joshua”, the BBC documentary first aired on January 8, 2024 and alleged Joshua faked the miracles that drew thousands of people to his church. The three-part investigation captured testimonies of people who said that they were abused and tortured by the preacher over the course of two decades (archived here).

Joshua founded his Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria, more than three decades ago. According to the BBC, his rise to fame was tied to his self-professed divine powers and his supposed ability to heal the sick.

The exposé also shows some of his theatrical healings of disabled people walking again. One segment shows Joshua purportedly resurrecting a dead person and testimonies of those he claimed to have cured.

Joshua died in 2021 aged 57 (archived here).

But the video claiming to show Nigeria's president discrediting the BBC exposé was digitally manipulated.

Doctored video

Using the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the clip, AFP Fact Check found the original version of the footage (archived here) on the YouTube account of Nigerian broadcaster Channels Television.

It shows Tinubu’s televised New Year speech and was uploaded on January 1, 2024.

AFP Fact Check listened to the entire speech, and nowhere does Tinubu speak about Joshua or the BBC investigation, which was only aired a week later.

By studying Tinubu’s lip movements together with the audio in the altered video, it is clear the two do not synchronise, an indication that the audio was doctored.

Although the voice in the manipulated footage sounds similar to Tinubu’s, it has either been mimicked or generated by artificial intelligence.

The social media posts sharing the altered clip credit Channels Television. 

However, we searched for the clip on  Channels Television's official pages including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and found nothing except for Tinubu’s New Year speech where he is wearing the same clothes as those in the doctored video.

The background is also the same, including the four flags flanking Tinubu and the country’s court of arms above him. 

In a message to AFP Fact Check on January 26, Channels TV said: “We did not share a video showing President Tinubu trashing the BBC documentary on TB Joshua.”

Tinubu’s speech, which was also aired on other Nigerian news sites, focused on the achievements of his administration and the challenges facing his country, such as insecurity, corruption and unemployment.

We searched the Nigerian presidency’s official website (archived here) and social media pages (here, here and here) but found no comment by Tinubu on the BBC exposé.

The presidency’s office is yet to respond to our request for comment on the matter.