As campaigning to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s president reaches a fever pitch ahead of February’s elections, opposition leader Peter Obi has been enjoying a wave of endorsements from high-profile Nigerians, including former president Olusegun Obasanjo. Several social media posts claim that former Nigerian military leader Ibrahim Babangida has also thrown his weight behind Obi. This is false; the tweet used as evidence came from a parody account, and a spokesman for Babangida has denied he endorsed Obi.

“Few days after Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo endorsed Peter Obi to be the next president of Nigeria, IBB, former Head of States of Nigeria supports Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo on his endorsement (sic),” reads an Instagram post published on January 3, 2023.

The initials IBB refer to the former head of state Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

A screenshot of the false Instagram post, taken on January 3, 2023

Liked more than 27,000 times, the post features several images, including one with photos of Babangida and Obi captioned “Babangida endorses Peter Obi”, as well as a screenshot of a tweet from a Twitter account called “Ibrahim B. Babangida”.

The Instagram account, which has more than four million followers, openly supports Obi.

Other Facebook accounts posted similar claims (here and here).

Babangida was Nigeria’s head of state between 1985 and 1993, after overthrowing the regime of the then major-general Muhammadu Buhari. The 81-year-old said in an interview in January 2022 that...

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