AN X user, @nolifefahard, has posted a video showing a former Nigerian president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in a media interview alongside a claim that the ex-President allegedly exposed Omoyele Sowore for working with the current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Sowore was the African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate during Nigeria’s 2023 general election and publisher of Sahara Reporters.
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The 13-second video was accompanied with a caption that read:
“BREAKING: Goodluck finally exposes Sowore for working with Tinubu.”
Similarly, the transcript of the video read thus:
“While I was still receiving the ambassadors about 11am I didn’t know, even Sahara reporters have already announced it before I knew about it.”
The post has amassed over 71,000 views with more than 800 likes and over 300 reposts as of March 13, 2025.
CLAIM
Video shows Jonathan exposing Omoyele Sowore for working with Tinubu.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub reveal that the claim is MISLEADING.
The political rivalry between Tinubu and Sowore intensified during the 2023 presidential election, where both contested for the Nigerian presidency.
Tinubu, who contested on the platform of ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), relied on his extensive political influence, while Sowore, the African Action Congress (AAC) candidate, positioned himself as a vocal critic of the political establishment. He also raised questions about Tinubu’s academic credentials and past legal controversies. Tinubu’s supporters, in turn, dismissed these allegations as politically-motivated and portrayed Sowore as an opportunist lacking a substantive political agenda.
Following the aftermath of the 2023 election, their rivalry played out on social media, with Sowore rejecting the election results and calling for electoral reforms. Since Tinubu’s inauguration, Sowore has remained a vocal critic, using his platform to challenge the Tinubu-led administration’s actions and advocate for transparency and accountability in governance.
To verify the authenticity of the video, our fact-checker extracted keyframes from the footage and conducted a reverse image search on Google search engine. This search led us to the source of the original video uploaded on December 4, 2012, by SaharaTV.
The video depicts a TVC News coverage of then President Jonathan addressing State House audience following the death of his younger brother, Meni Jonathan, who passed away on November 8, 2012. Another report published by PM News shows that the ex-President had an audience with some Nigerian lawmakers from the South-South caucus at the State House.
The 13-second clip shared by the claimant is part of this address, where Jonathan commented on how he heard the news of his brother’s death which can be found from 28 seconds to 48 seconds of the original 141-second video.
Part of the transcript read: “Then, my doctor came in with my ADC and my CSO and the way they came in I knew that something was wrong and they announced his death. So, while I was still receiving the ambassador, he passed on about 11am. I didn’t know. In fact, even Sahara Reporters announced it before I even knew about it” (sic), Jonathan said in the video.
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After a thorough review of both the claimant’s video and the full interview, our fact-checker found no mention of either Tinubu or Sowore in the videos.
Further checks confirm that the context in which Jonathan was speaking in the video is unrelated to any political matter but shows the former president mourning his brother’s death. This was also corroborated by another X user, @SuoazOfficial, who posted the same video on the social media platform on November 17, 2024.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows Jonathan exposing Sowore for working with Tinubu is MISLEADING; the video has been online since 2012 and shows the former president addressing State House audience following his brother’s death.
