Nigeria: No, Video Does Not Show Nigeria's Political Rivals Atiku Abubakar and Nyesom Wike Exchanging Cordial Greetings After 2023 Elections

27 July 2023
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Allwell Okpi

IN SHORT: A video showing two rival Nigerian politicians greeting each other cordially at a public event circulated in July 2023, with the claim it showed them meeting for the first time since the February election. But the video is old, dating back to May 2022.

A video circulating on Facebook in July 2023 shows Nigeria's former vice president Atiku Abubakar and former Rivers state governor Nyesom Wike exchanging pleasantries.

The two politicians are rivals but can be seen greeting each other with a handshake while smiling and bantering.

The video seems to show a political gathering of dozens of well-known Nigerian politicians.

"Moment Wike and Atiku Met Face To Face for the first time after elections," reads the caption of the video, posted on 12 July.

The video has been posted on Facebook here, here, here and here. We've found longer versions of it here, here and here with similar claims.

Wike and Abubakar are members of Nigeria's main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Wike lost the PDP's presidential primary election to Abubakar, who was the party's candidate in the 25 February presidential election.

Ahead of the election, Wike led four other PDP state governors and their associates to form a group called the G5, which opposed Abubakar's candidacy. Attempts to reconcile Wike and Abubakar failed.

Instead, Wike supported Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who won the presidential election.

If the video truly shows Wike and Abubakar exchanging pleasantries, it could be seen as a betrayal to their supporters, and also signal a thawing of hostilities.

But is this the case?

Old video after PDP primary election in 2022

Considering the interest generated by their rivalry, such a meeting between Wike and Abubakar would have been widely covered by the Nigerian media, but we found no such reports.

A reverse image search of a screenshot from the video revealed that it was recorded at a gathering of PDP leaders ahead of the presidential primary election on 28 May 2022.

We found the video posted on Facebook on 29 and 30 May 2022. It doesn't show a meeting of the political rivals in July 2023 or anytime after the country's February elections.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

Tagged:
Copyright © 2023 Africa Check. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.