FACT CHECK: Did Tinubu say he’ll hand over to Igbo politician if elected president in 2023?

Over the weekend, multiple social media posts claimed that Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said he will hand over to an Igbo politician after eight years if elected president in 2023.

The claim was posted on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

On Saturday, Daily Times, a Nigerian national newspaper with over 700,000 followers on Facebook, published the claim on its verified Facebook page.

“I will hand over to an Igbo man after my 8 years rule,” the post reads.

The post has so far garnered over 11,000 comments and 780 shares.

Another news platform — Orbitnews — with about 150,000 followers posted the claim on Facebook. The post has so far garnered over 200 comments and 31 shares.

A YouTube platform known as Critics News with over 110,000 followers had a live-stream discussion programme with the title, “I will hand over to an Igbo man after 8 years rule – Tinubu tells Peter Obi.”  The live stream has over 21,000 views.

Some of the posts have been archived here, here and here.

"I will hand over to an Igbo man after my 8 years rule" – Tinubu
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On June 8, Tinubu, former Lagos governor, was declared the winner of the presidential primary after he polled 1,271 votes to defeat 13 other presidential hopefuls.

Prior to the APC primary, Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, won the presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – a development which means that the two leading political parties in the country will not field presidential candidates from the Igbo extraction of the south-east, despite the clamour by south-east leaders.

VERIFICATION

TheCable observed that none of the social media posts on the claim stated the location where the comment was purportedly made.

TheCable also reviewed online reports pertaining to Tinubu and his bid for the presidency. Results showed that no credible media platform published the viral claim.

In a phone interview with Tunde Rahman, media aide to Tinubu, he said his principal could not have made such a statement, adding that the claim is false.

“The claim is unbelievable. He (referring to Tinubu) did not say that. He has just been nominated by his party as the presidential candidate. The focus is the election scheduled for February 25, 2023,” Rahman told TheCable.

VERDICT

There is no publicly available evidence to back the claim that Tinubu said he will hand over to an Igbo politician if elected president in 2023. Hence, the viral claim is false.