Claim that former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari died in 2017 resurfaces after his actual death in July 2025
IN SHORT: As soon as the Nigerian government announced the death of former president Muhammadu Buhari on 13 July 2025, an old claim that he died in 2017 and was replaced with a body double resurfaced online. The claim had been debunked numerous times, even by Buhari himself.
Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari died in a London hospital on 13 July 2025 and was given a state burial two days later.
Buhari was Nigeria's military head of state from January 1984 to August 1985, and democratically elected president from 2015 to 2023.
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In this context, multiple Facebook posts claimed that the Nigerian government's announcement of Buhari's death was false information, saying he died in 2017.
One post by a pro-Biafra Facebook page reads: "The Nigerian government can only deceive Nigerians; they can't deceive Biafrans. Buhari died since 2017, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB have stated it. This is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Video demonstration in 2017/2018, stated that the man they imposed on Nigeria as a president is an impostor. Nigeria is scam."
The post included an old video of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), Nnamdi Kanu, making the claim and displaying photos that he claimed showed Buhari's body doubles.
Ipob is a group agitating for the restoration of the Republic of Biafra in southeastern Nigeria. The secession of the region in 1967 led to a three-year civil war. Kanu is facing charges bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony, among others.
The same claim appears here, here and here. (Note: See more instances at the end of this report.)
But is it true that Buhari died in 2017, not in July 2025? We checked.
No new evidence for the debunked claim
The rumour was that Buhari died in a London hospital in 2017 during one of his medical trips in his first term as Nigeria's president. It was also said that Buhari was quietly buried in Saudi Arabia and replaced by a body double named "Jubril" from Sudan.
The claim was widely shared online and did not entirely go away even after Buhari debunked it in December 2018, ahead of his re-election in February 2019.
Africa Check debunked multiple claims related to the rumour, including one that Buhari's wife, Aisha, said she left the presidential villa, because "the man in Aso Rock is not my husband". Aso Rock is the official office and residence of the president, located in the capital Abuja.
See other fact-checks debunking claims about Buhari dying in 2017 here, here and here.
The claims making the rounds on Facebook in July 2025 have provided no new evidence. We also found none.
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Buhari's body was returned to Nigeria from London on 15 July and was buried in his home town, Daura, Katsina state in northwestern Nigeria.
The claim that he died and was buried in 2017 is false.
The same claim was found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
