FACT CHECK: Did Obasanjo say he’d rather be an Igbo man?

CLAIM: Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he would rather be an Igbo man in his next life than be Yoruba.

VERDICT: False!

FULL TEXT

A viral post on Facebook claimed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he would rather be an Igbo man in his next life. The bigoted post further attributed to Obasanjo, the claim that “one average Igbo man is worth more than 100 Yoruba with a Ph.D.”

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The post reads further: “Briefing News men, Obasanjo hailed Igbos for their fight against injustice in the country and made it clear that he would rather be an Igbo man in his life than a Yoruba man.”

VERIFICATION

Findings by Ripples Nigeria showed there is no evidence that the former president made the claim attributed to him in the post.

Further checks also revealed that no reputable mainstream Nigerian media platform reported the said claim, even though it was stated in the post that Obasanjo purportedly made the claim while “addressing news men”. This begs the question of who the “news men” are?

CONCLUSION

There is no evidence that Obasanjo said he would rather be an Igbo man nor that Igbos are smarter than any other tribe in Nigeria.

By: Oluwatobi Odeyinka

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