No, Nigerian politician Peter Obi didn't call for war during anti-government protests
IN SHORT: Several social media posts have accused Peter Obi of inciting a war in Nigeria, but the claim is misleading.
In the heat of nationwide anti-government protests in Nigeria, a claim that Peter Obi has called for war has been shared on social media.
A video of Obi giving an address in an unknown location has been posted on Instagram and social media platform X, previously known as Twitter.
(Note: See more instances of the claim at the end of the report.)
The caption of the video reads: "Protest: Peter Obi Calls For W*r To Be Declared in Nigeria."
Obi was the presidential candidate for Nigeria's Labour Party in the February 2023 elections.
He has been vocal about the economic hardship faced by Nigerians and has also expressed his views on the protests.
On 1 August 2024, Nigerians began nationwide protests against economic hardship, planned until the 10th. Their grievances include the removal of the fuel subsidy and the high cost of basic commodities.
The demonstrations, dubbed "10 days of rage", are tagged #EndBadGovernance and #EndBadGovernanceProtests on social media.
In response, government officials and security services have warned of possible violence, leading to the emergence of some anti-protest groups.
But did Obi really call for war? We checked.
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Obi debunks claim
Africa Check did a Google reverse search and found that the 17-seconds-long video clip in which Obi is shown talking about war, is extracted from a much longer video posted on the Youtube channel Symfoni on 29 July.
The 16-minute long version is captioned "Why Is Tinubu Afraid of Protests? Peter Obi Questions Tinubu's Ability To Solve Nigeria's Challenges". We watched the video and found that the part where Obi mentioned war was clipped, out of context, to make it look as though he was calling for war against northerners.
We also found a news report from 29 July about the same event. Obi was speaking at a ceremony for the organisation Rotary International in Awka, Anambra state.
The report makes no mention of Obi calling for war, which would certainly have been newsworthy. We found no reports on other credible media channels that Obi had incited war.
On 2 August, Obi debunked the claim that he was calling for war on his official X account. He said the intention of those claiming he had called for war was to "blackmail him into conforming to their nefarious agendas".
"Their dubious moves have led to the false circulation of a video from my recent keynote speech at the installation of Rotarian Professor A. U. Nnonyelu in Anambra State. They have twisted the video to suit their motive to suggest that I declared war on Northerners when, in fact, I spoke about declaring war on economic stagnation, insecurity, and corruption," Obi added.
The video was also posted here and here with the same misleading claim.
