In the heat of the socio-political unrest and human right abuse ongoing in Nigeria, many have expressed shock at why the president of Nigeria, H.E Muhamadu Buhari is mute over the situation.
The graphical scenes and the spilling of blood on the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Lekki etc has left a bitter taste in the mouth of all Africans and especially champions of human rights and social activists.
On the other side, the debate about whether President Buhari is not actually the one leading Nigeria at the moment has become topical. Social media, again, has been inundated with unsubstantiated proof of his death in 2017 which had been kept a secret.
Many share the view that President Buhari after he died, was succeeded by a certain Jubril who is acting as an imposter which is why he is unperturbed to their plights and adamant to their concerns.
Ghabase.com decides to conduct an extensive search into the authenticity of the rumour about an imposter leading Nigeria as President Buhari; to ascertain the fact, lay bare our findings and educate our readers and followers accordingly.
According to a December 3, 2018, publication by BBC on whether President Buhari is dead and has had an imposter running Nigeria in his stead, the news agency found out that these are mere allegations and figment of the unverifiable imaginations of peddlers of falsehood.
Per the publication, a man named Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who started the crusade to tell Nigerians that they are being led by an imposter and that Buhari is actually dead, made a lot of allegations on the facial look and the physical stature of two photos to give support to his claim that President Buhari died long ago.
“Here we have a supposed old man between 76-85 yrs that suddenly switched his writing hand from left to right. Could the @AsoRock handlers of Jubril clarify this mix-up? We are patiently waiting for answers and I believe millions of people deserve an explanation. @NGRPresident,” he wrote.
Here we have a supposed old man between 76-85 yrs that suddenly switched his writing hand from left to right.
Could the @AsoRock handlers of Jubril clarify this mix-up?
We are patiently waiting for answers and I believe millions of people deserve an explanation.@NGRPresident pic.twitter.com/y0o63ApY5I
— Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (@MaziNnamdiKanu) November 25, 2018
These allegations were later debunked by President Buhari when he was asked whether he has heard the numerous reports that the real ‘Buhari’ is dead and Nigeria is being led by an imposter at the UN climate change conference in 2018 in Poland.
”A lot of people hoped that I died during my ill health. Some even reached out to the vice-president to consider them to be his deputy because they assumed I was dead.
“That embarrassed him a lot and of course, he visited me when I was in London convalescing… It’s [the] real me; I assure you,” Mr Buhari added.
A former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, 72, has emerged as Mr Buhari’s main challenger in next year’s election.
The opposition is expected to make the president’s health a major campaign issue, but Mr Buhari said: “I’m still going strong.”
VIDEO: “ President @MBuhari’s response to the rumors [by ignorant and irreligious people] of him being cloned.
“…Somebody just thought I am cloned, …it is real me I sure you.” pic.twitter.com/TCU6Bzziw4
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) December 2, 2018
Subsequently, AFP Fact Check also did some work on this piece of rumour or perhaps fake news and published it on Friday 14 August 2020 at 09:26 where they delve deeper into the allegation by Mr Nnamdi and drew a thin line between the discrepancies in his view that President Buhari of Nigeria died some years ago.
According to AFP Fact Check, Buhari is not dead and the photos make rounds were edited to suit the propaganda agenda of the propagators.
This Facebook post from July 24, 2020, has been shared more than 3,000 times and was published shortly after Buhari joined other African leaders in Mali for crisis talks last month.
“PUBLIC UNVEILING OF THE LATEST BUHARI HYPER-REALITY FACE MASK IN MALI,” reads the post’s introduction. It goes on to compare, in fine detail, two photographs of Buhari — a recent one from his Mali trip and an older portrait.
It claims that owing to the purported differences in size, colour and shape of the necklines and ears, the most recent photograph cannot be Buhari, but is instead a body double.
“Nobody can recreate a dead man without making silly mistakes. Buhari is dead and buried,” the post concludes.
The owner of the Facebook page responsible for the post is “Mazi Nnamdi Kanu”, the British-Nigerian leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who are demanding independence from Nigeria.
Similar claims to Kanu’s are made in another post, archived here, while this one reaches the same conclusion with the hashtag #BuhariIsDead by juxtaposing two low-quality images of Buhari and focusing on purported changes to his front teeth.
Kanu again uses two comparative images in this post from August 9, 2020, to drive home his claim that a Buhari imposter is running the country, or the “Zoo” as he calls it. Shared nearly 5,000 times, the pictures — one clearly altered — are dated four years apart and claim to be evidence of two different people.
Adding to the recent spate of claims is an old post from 2018, which has been shared more than 23,000 times and which recently resurfaced on Facebook. It claims that American cable network CNN reported the death of Buhari two years ago and includes a picture of a purported news anchor delivering a broadcast with an inset image showing a crowd carrying a body shrouded in white.
The headline below a “breaking news” label reads “Nigeria president Buhari is dead in UK”, while the post’s caption claims that “CNN haave finally release the news of demise of Buhari which took January 27 2017 (sic)”.
The publication above by AFP Fact Check concluded that President Buhari has never died and that Nigeria is being led by their actual leader. The report also debunked rumours of impersonation and concluded that Nigeria’s president has been Buhari and is Buhari.
Ther are many people who still find these findings highly untrue and concocted especially some Nigerians who believe they have better particulars to prove that Buhari is an imposter.
The #ENDSARS protest is still ongoing and has degenerated into a very nasty scene of brutality, murder and manslaughter. Calls for ECOWAS, UN AND AU to speak to bring peace and tranquillity to Nigeria has intensified with Ghana’s president, H.E Nana Akufo-Addo being blamed for his supposed quietness.
When is this #EndSars protest going to end? When is Nigeria going to return to normal? When will the lives of Blacks truly and sincerely matter?
Source: Ghbase.com
