By Pascal Ibe
Introduction
In August, President Bola Tinubu embarked on a three-week vacation as part of his annual leave.
Tinubu departed from Abuja for Europe. First stopped in London, United Kingdom, then went to Paris, France.
According to the presidency, Tinubu is expected to return home after the working vacation to join the hectic campaigns for the January 2027 election.
However, what looked like an annual vacation for the president soon drew criticism from many Nigerians after Tinubu declined to attend the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly meeting in New York on 22 September.
Rather he sent Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Even after the expiration of his three-week holiday in Paris, the president postponed his return to Nigeria, thereby raising questions about his health condition.
Claim
After one of the president’s spokespersons, Bayo Onanuga, released a statement a one day ago that the president is hale and hearty, a video clip which claims to show Tinubu coming down from an aircraft with what looks like a paralysed hand had surfaced on the X platform.
An X user, @JudeHeavenly, who posted (archived here) the video, claimed that it was the president’s recent return, adding that Tinubu is dealing with a health issue and the presidency is trying to conceal it.
What he captioned the clip reads in part, “When Bayo Onanuga did a long post that Tinubu is ‘ hale and hearty, ‘ I knew immediately that something was wrong. You can find my response on my TL.
“When Onanuga tells you something is black, just know the colour is white. When he says turn left, pls if you love your life turn right.
*A careful look at this video shows the left hand of Tinibu is completely immobile. What are they hiding?”
Another account on X, a parody account of the famous Nigerian social media influencer, Tunde Ednut, posted the video and wrote, “He’s back but with deformity. His left hand isn’t well.”
The video alongside the claim, also appeared here.
Verification
To verify whether the clip is recent or not, we took key frames from the clip and subjected them to an Image Reverse Search website. Results indicated that the video was from January 2026.
FACTWATCH Nigeria further discovered that the clip was from when Tinubu returned to Abuja after a state visit to the Republic of Türkiye.
Check reports that corroborated this evidence here, here, here and here.
No reports or authoritative sources confirmed or suggested that Tinubu’s hand later became paralysed or immovable after the Turkey trip in January.
Another piece of evidence that the video is not recent is that it showed that the president’s return was at night; however, another video published by TVC News and other credible news organisations in Nigeria on Tuesday, 29 September, showed that Tinubu returned in the evening when it was not dark.
See video of the president’s return from Paris here.
Lastly, the January clip began to circulate on X before Onanuga announced that Tinubu had already departed France for Nigeria. A solid indication that it was not recent.
Verdict
The election is around the corner, and every Nigerian politician and their supporters are dishing out malicious propaganda to discredit each other. This claim that President Tinubu returned to Nigeria with a paralysed hand is a deliberate act of misinformation and disinformation, as the video is not recent. Therefore, the claim is FALSE.
