A video purportedly showing the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying that he’s a supporter of Chelsea Football Club and he suffers a heart attack anytime the English club loses has surfaced online.
The claim was posted by an X account, @X_Dailly, on May 2, 2024 with a caption thus:
“Am a fan of Chelsea and I don’t like the way they are loosing,anytime they lose its gives me heart attack -President Bola Tinubu reveals.”
It has generated multiple reactions online with many X users accusing the Nigerian president of misplaced priority amidst various challenges bedeviling the country.
The post was reposted by another X user, @YabaLeftOnline before the later deleted it.
CLAIM
Video shows Tinubu saying that he suffers a heart attack anytime Chelsea loses.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
The FactCheckHub analyzed the video and it shows traces of manipulation. The speech and lip gestures of the president do not also correlate in the video – a common feature of deepfake.
Deep fakes are synthetic media, including images, videos, and audio, generated by artificial intelligence (AI) technology that portray something that does not exist in reality or events that have never occurred.
Furthermore, since the video carries the logo of Channels TV, our fact-checker reviewed previous videos of President Tinubu posted online by the television channel. This led us to the original video uploaded on March 29, 2024.
The original footage highlights President Tinubu’s speech while breaking this year’s Ramadan fasting with traditional rulers and religious leaders at the Nigerian Presidential Villa in March 2024.
When our fact-checker reviewed the full video, he couldn’t find anywhere in the footage when Tinubu talked about supporting Chelsea.
At the programme, Tinubu spoke about the significant role of religious leaders in shaping public opinion and promoting unity in the country and not about any football club.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows Tinubu saying that he suffers a heart attack anytime Chelsea loses is MISLEADING; the original video shows that he was admonishing traditional and religious leaders and NOT talking about any football club.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
