IN SHORT: The presidential candidate for Nigeria’s governing party has had to contend with persistent questions about his identity and credentials. But a photo shared online shows another APC figure as a boy.
A photo posted on Facebook in Nigeria in November 2022 claims to show presidential candidate Bola Tinubu as a boy.
The caption reads: “Young Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a secondary school boy before heading to Chicago to study accounting.”
Bola Tinubu is the presidential candidate for Nigeria’s governing party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the country’s February 2023 general elections.
The same photo and claim about Tinubu were also shared on Facebook here, here, and here.
Questions around Tinubu’s educational qualification and certificates can be traced back to 1999 when he first ran for governor of Lagos state.
His decision to run for the presidency in 2023 again sparked rumours, including about his educational history, his age, identity, and health. His campaign has often refuted these questions.
But is this a photo of Tinubu as a child? We checked.
Photo of former APC national chairperson
A reverse image search of the photo identifies the person in it as Adams Oshiomhole and not Tinubu.
Oshiomhole is the former national chairperson of the APC. He is also a former governor of Edo state in southern Nigeria.
A search of the phrase “old photo of Adams Oshiomhole” returned results that included the same photo. There’s no evidence for it showing Bola Tinubu.
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