By Pascal Ibe
Introduction
Nigeria’s Independence, celebrated on 1st October, has come and gone, but many Nigerians are still talking about what happened on that day.
The West African country marked 66 years of gaining independence from Britain, with President Bola Tinubu stating that the nation’s time for prosperity has come.
For some citizens, the Independence Day celebration in Nigeria is just a mere celebration which does any signs of achievements by both the past and the current Nigerian leaders.
While others believe that the celebration is a reminder that there is still hope in the country on its path to greatness.
Claim
Nigerians on the X platform have posted a video clip which claims to show the Nigerian military’s colourful Independence Day parade.
In the video posted (archived here), the military, during the parade, displayed skills by queuing to form different words.
An X user, @iamdennisgreat, who posted (archived here) the video, criticised the military, saying that “They spend time practising this and leave their real duty to fight against insecurity.”
Verification
Primary evidence which indicates the video is not real is that FACTWATCH Nigeria observed that the parade ground and the Federal Capital Territory city gate appear together in the clip. However, in reality, the parade ground, which is usually the Eagles Square, is far from and in a different location from the Abuja city gate.
Also, the movements and gesticulations in the video were unrealistic.
We further discovered that there was no military parade in Abuja to mark the Nigeria @66 celebration. However, some states celebrated the anniversary.
And finally, when key frames from the video were subjected to AI Image detection tools like , SightEngine, the results confirmed that the video was AI-generated.
Verdict
Findings showed that the video of the Nigerian military’s colourful parade to mark Nigeria @66 was AI-generated. Therefore, it is FALSE.
