IN SHORT: An old claim about 500 Igbo military officers resigning over lack of confidence in Bola Tinubu as commander-in-chief has resurfaced. But there is still no evidence for it.
In March 2024 a message circulated on Facebook, claiming that 500 Nigerian military officers from the Igbo ethnic group had resigned after passing a vote of no confidence in president Bola Tinubu.
The claim is circulating as a screenshot of a breaking news report and as Facebook posts.
“Breaking news: 500 Igbo military officers resign from Nigeria's military, passed a vote of no confidence for Tinubu as president,” the headline of the screenshot reads.
The claim also appears here, here, here, here, here and here.
The Igbo are from Nigeria’s southeast region, which seceded from Nigeria in 1967 to form a sovereign state called the Republic of Biafra. The state collapsed after a 30-month civil war.
In the Nigerian military, the term “military officer” is used for commissioned officers in the army who have senior ranks from second lieutenant to field marshal. They are usually graduates of military academies.
According to the Nigerian Armed Forces Act, an officer can only resign after obtaining permission.
“All promotions, retirements, resignations and dismissals of an officer from any of the services of the Armed Forces shall be published in the Gazette,” section 24 of the act reads.
The act also says that expressing a lack of confidence in the president, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, could be interpreted as mutiny or insubordination. The offenders could face imprisonment if convicted by a court-martial.
Considering this, have 500 military staff of Igbo origin really resigned because they don’t have confidence in Tinubu? We investigated.
Old claim, no evidence
We found that the claim first circulated in May 2023, days before Tinubu was sworn in as president.
Examples of the claim made in May 2023 on Facebook can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. But there was no credible evidence of this then.
The resignation of 25 officers from the Nigerian Army made the news in August 2023. The army spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, told journalists their resignation was approved by the chief of army staff after they applied and met the terms for voluntary discharge.
It is very unlikely that the resignation of 500 officers from one ethnic group would go unreported by the media.
We found no evidence of this claim on any communication channels used by the army, airforce or navy.
Such a claim could lead to tension among Nigeria’s ethnic groups. But there is no evidence it was true, either in May 2023 or March 2024.
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