Back to Africa Check

No evidence Obasanjo said there was no coronavirus in Nigeria

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has said there are no cases of coronavirus in the country, claims an article shared on Facebook. A screenshot of the article has also been posted on WhatsApp. 

Its headline reads: “There is no coronavirus in Nigeria, The minister of health cooks the story to defraud the Government, I want to see the Italian man, I wan get the virus too - Obasanjo.” The article was published on the site 9JAVARIETY on 4 March 2020.

The coronavirus, which causes the disease Covid-19, was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. By 10 March 2020 there were at least 114,000 confirmed cases of the disease worldwide, with 4,000 deaths recorded. 

Nigeria recorded its first case of Covid-19 on 27 February 2020.

Obasanjo was president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. He is known to regularly air his views on current events and politics. His opinions are usually widely covered in the media. 

But did he say this about Covid-19?



Obasanjo’s birthday plans hit by coronavirus


The two-paragraph article, which includes a photo of Obasanjo, is badly written and full of grammatical errors – often a sign of misinformation. 

There have been no reports in the mainstream media of Obasanjo disputing Nigeria’s first case of coronavirus, or saying anything negative about the minister of health. Such a statement would have been reported by credible news organisations.

But there have been a number of news reports from 5 March that the former president had to change plans for his 83rd birthday celebrations because of the virus. According to one report, which included photos, all guests attending the event were screened for Covid-19 on entry. 

And the photo in the 9JAVARIETY article is not recent and does not show Obasanjo discussing Covid-19. It has been used in many news stories about him, from as early as February 2019. – Motunrayo Joel




 

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.