No, this photo does not show Buhari was unaware of Nigeria’s election delay

The image, which was posted by a Facebook page called “Dailymail gist” on February 16 -- the initial date for the presidential election -- has been shared nearly 4,000 times.

“Breaking news: Buhari Just Arrived His Unit For Accreditation, Saying He Is Not Aware That The Elections Has Been Postponed,” reads the caption.

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A screenshot taken on February 19, 2019 showing a Facebook post that claims Buhari turned up at his polling unit, unaware of the election delay

A similar post by a Facebook page called "Nigeria Politics Today" also used a different picture from 2015 to make the same misleading claim.

A tweet with the same message, but without the photo, was retweeted more than 600 times.

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A screenshot taken on February 19, 2019, showing a tweet claiming Buhari was unaware of the delayed poll

Buhari’s opponents have repeatedly accused him of being unaware of major developments around him, including that Nigeria’s former top policeman Ibrahim Idris disobeyed orders to relocate to Benue state last year to deal with a wave of attacks by herdsmen.

The Facebook post plays on the same theme, and at least some readers appeared to interpret it as a satirical or humorous post.

But other readers interpreted it as real “breaking news”. “Should he be hearing the postponement on radio and television? I weep for this nation,” wrote one user under the photo.

But Buhari had already responded to the announcement of a delay hours before the Facebook post was uploaded, and reporters following him in his hometown of Daura said he did not visit a polling booth that day.

The president’s campaign team had released a statement at 6:46 am on Saturday condemning the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delay the elections, while the Facebook post was not uploaded until 11:14 am.

On Monday, Buhari addressed senior members of his ruling All Progressives Congress party at an emergency meeting in Abuja and told them: "I was told of the decision by INEC at about 4:35 in the morning."

Buhari was indeed in his northern hometown of Daura on Saturday, where he had been due to cast his vote until INEC announced, just hours before polls were due to open, that the presidential vote was being delayed for a week for logistical reasons.

But an AFP reporting team in Daura said the president did not visit any polling booth on that day. Instead, he headed straight back to Abuja.

A reverse image search shows that the picture used in the post was in fact taken by Associated Press photographer Ben Curtis on March 28, 2015, when Buhari was preparing to vote in the election that brought him to the presidency.