Back to Africa Check

No, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former governor of Nigeria’s Lagos state, is not dead

A message posted on Facebook in June 2021 claims that Nigerian politician Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state, is dead.

The 16 June 2021 post reads: “Bola Ahmed Tinubu is dead. Latest news, confirm it by yourself.” The post includes a photo of Tinubu. He was Lagos’s governor from 1999 to 2007.

Since he left office, Tinubu has been involved in politics by campaigning for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the political party of which he is national leader, and commenting on national issues.

Is Tinubu dead? We checked.

Ahmed_false

No news of death

Comments on the message say it is false. And Africa Check could not find any public record or report of Tinubu’s death.

There is no report of his death from his family, or from the APC.

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, governors and ministers in the political party, would have also sent condolence messages to Tinubu’s family. They haven’t.

The message is false.

Republish our content for free

Please complete this form to receive the HTML sharing code.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.