Saheed Aderinto, a Nigerian professor of History and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University, was earlier reported to have won the Dan David Prize, which is known as the largest history prize in the world.
Nigerians at home and abroad, including President Muhammadu Buhari, have since showered encomium on the Nigerian-American professor following his latest feat.
Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who emerged president-elect in the February 25 polls, has also congratulated Aderinto for clinching $300,000.
He made this known in a statement posted on his verified Twitter handle on Monday, March 13, 2023.
A tweet, purportedly from Saheed Aderinto, has however quoted Tinubu’s congratulatory message, asking that he restore the “stolen mandate”.
“Thanks anyway for the recognition, I hope you restore Our stolen Mandate,” the tweet read.
This is not unconnected from the controversies that have since marred the outcome of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.
The tweet has since gone viral on Twitter and WhatsApp.
A Twitter user, Adebowale, posted the screenshot of the tweet, saying, “Prof Saheed Aderinto just nack Tinubu oraimo cord for neck. ‘I hope you restore our stolen mandate’.”
Another user, Uncle Charles, said, “Saheed Aderinto replies Bola Tinubu.”
The same claim could be seen here and here
The account also referred to Peter Obi of the Labour Party as the “president-elect”.
Claim: Nigerian professor, Dan David prize winner, asked president-elect Bola Tinubu of the APC to restore “stolen mandate”.
Verification
CDD Election War Room checked to verify the claim and found that the Twitter account is not operated by Saheed Aderinto.
We checked the History professor’s profile on Facebook and found that he already debunked making such a statement, and described the Twitter account in his name as fake.
“It has come to my attention that a fake Twitter account has been opened in my name. I don’t have a Twitter account. And didn’t make those statements”, Aderinto said in a Facebook post.
We also observed that in an earlier post where Aderinto responded to Tinubu’s congratulatory message, he said, “Another additional pressure ti wa! Thank you sir!
PS: I don’t have a Twitter account. I see that a parody account has been created in my name.”
We checked through Aderinto’s parody account on Twitter and observed that the person handling it is a supporter of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
The account was created in October 2019 and has since gained over 6k followers on the microblogging platform. The handler of the account has since added “parody” to the account name on Twitter.
Verdict
The claim that Saheed Aderinto, a Nigerian-American professor who recently won the world’s history prize, asked Bola Tinubu to restore the “stolen mandate” is false; Findings by the CDD Election War Room revealed that it was a parody account in the professor’s name that made the statement on Twitter.
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