An image circulating on Facebook appears to show Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari telling the country’s military to “be prepared for war”.
The image looks like a screenshot of a tweet from the handle @MBuhari, Buhari’s official Twitter account.
The tweet reads: “We stand with Ukraine at this trying time really after speaking to President Biden on his plans, I have informed my military personals to be prepared for war! We will not let this slide.”
On 24 February Russia invaded its neighbour, Ukraine, and the violent conflict has since dominated world headlines.
But did Buhari tweet that he’d put the Nigerian army on high alert after speaking to US president Joe Biden? We checked.
No evidence of statement
The last tweet from Buhari’s verified account was on 1 June 2021, days before the federal government banned Twitter in Nigeria.
The ban was lifted on 12 January 2022, but the president has not tweeted since.
Another sign that the screenshot isn’t genuine is the many spelling errors, unlikely in communication from the president’s office.
There was no statement like it reported by the mainstream Nigerian media. All evidence points to it being fabricated.
Republish our content for free
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 guideAfrica 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