Editorial Board Chairman of The Nation newspaper, Sam Omatseye, has just shared an image of President-elect Bola Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari, breaking their Ramadan fast in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Omatseye is also a News show host on Television Continental (TVC).
The Nation and TVC are media houses owned by Tinubu.
The image on Omatseye’s verified Twitter and Facebook pages has the following caption in block letters: ASIWAJU TINUBU PRESIDENT ELECT AND PRESIDENT BUHARI AT MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA TODAY, APRIL 12, 2023.
The Genesis
Recall that on March 22, 2023, Tinubu’s media team announced to the world that the President-elect has travelled to Paris, France to rest and plan his transition programme ahead of his inauguration on May 29, 2023.
The statement signed by Tunde Rahman, Tinubu’s spokesperson, also detailed that Tinubu would from France, travel to London, “preparatory to going to Saudi Arabia for Umrah (Lesser Hajj) and the Ramadan Fasting that begins Thursday.”
While Tinubu has been spotted in London, it’s unclear if he eventually made the trip to Mecca.
Omatseye’s photo of Buhari and Tinubu breaking the fast in Saudi Arabia is intended to make readers and viewers alike, believe that Tinubu is keeping with his publicly disclosed March itinerary.
That photograph of Tinubu and Buhari has also been widely shared by other Tinubu supporters and is being passed off as recent.
So, is it recent?
No, it’s not.
Using Google Reverse Imaging, QUEST TIMES can report that the image is a 2019 photograph.
It was used by Premium Times in a May 10, 2019 story with the caption: “Ramadan. Buhari hosts Tinubu to breaking of fast.”
Quite why Omatseye, 61, would share the image and pass it off as recent, is anyone’s guess.
Conclusion, Verdict
Sharing old photos of Tinubu and passing them off as recent, as staunch loyalists of Tinubu are now doing, further fuels the opposition narrative that the man’s health is being carefully managed and that Nigeria’s President-elect could be a sad repeat of President Buhari’s time in office, where frequent travels abroad to manage a failing health, became the order of the day and a permanent feature of the last eight years.
It also fuels the narrative that Tinubu’s men know more about their principal’s health status than they are willing to let on.
On the campaign trail, Tinubu mangled his speeches, stuttered, stumbled and trembled. He was the picture of a man struggling with his health. There was also one disturbing image of candidate Tinubu ostensibly peeing on himself, just days after declaring he was going to run for the Office of President.
In conclusion, Omatseye’s image of Tinubu and Buhari breaking their Ramadan fast in Mecca is outdated and completely misleading.
To pass it off as recent–and this from a veteran journalist no less–is completely beyond the pale and unethical.