TINUBU’S PRESIDENCY OF LIES: HOW FAKE AGENCIES, PROPAGANDA AND AI-MANUFACTURED HEADLINES WERE DEPLOYED AGAINST PETER OBI
Great Imo Jonathan
The mask has fallen off. The Presidency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu has exposed itself not as a government of governance, but as a presidency built on lies, propaganda, fake promises and fake agencies. Nothing they say is real, because they are deliberate about using falsehood to swindle, dupe and deceive Nigerians. The latest attack on Peter Obi proves it beyond doubt.
At the center of the scandal is Tope Fasua, the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs in the office of the Vice President in President Bola Tinubu’s administration. A man who should be advising on how to rescue an economy in freefall is instead spending his time as a propaganda merchant, manufacturing and distributing fake news against the opposition.
Fasua circulated a fabricated graphic designed with the banner and branding of Sahara Reporters. The fake headline read: “FAKE DRUG PRODUCERS NEED ORIENTATION NOT DEATH SENTENCE – OBI REPLIES FG”. It carried Peter Obi’s photograph to make it look authentic.
Alongside the forgery, Fasua added his own venom: “The guy is congenitally damaged.”
The lie was quickly busted. Media scholar Professor Farooq Kperogi called him out publicly in the comment section: “I looked this up, and it appears that the image is manipulated. There is no record of this story on Sahara Reporters’ website or social media handles. I asked AI to search Sahara Reporters’ website in case I missed something. It confirmed that no such story was ever published by the outlet.”
Fact checks confirmed Sahara Reporters never published such a story. There is no web link, no archive, no video of Obi making such a statement. It was pure AI-manufactured propaganda, a Photoshop job passed off as news.
Yet Fasua, even after being alerted that the story was fake news, left the post up to continue gathering views and comments. That is not a mistake. That is a strategy. Leave the lie, let it spread, let the damage be done.
He did not work alone. The dirty job was enabled and amplified by the usual Tinubu propaganda network. Zara Onyinye on Facebook wrote, “Peter Obi says drug and food producers need re-orientation not death penalty,” pushing the same fabrication. Wale Ajetunmobi, an aide to the Lagos State governor who was previously suspended over a post confessing to state-sponsored extra-judicial killings during #EndSARS, also posted the fake graphic, adding “Obi has never disappointed his base.”
This is the pattern. Tinubu presidency invent a headline, forge a reputable platform’s logo, and make Obi appear to be defending counterfeiters who kill Nigerians.
It reveals three things about the Tinubu presidency.
It is a presidency of lies. From the economy to security, every promise is a repackaged lie. When the economy fails, they lie about the statistics. When revenue rises, they hide the deductions. When a policy fails, they create a fake enemy.
It is a presidency of fake agencies and fake news. They cannot run real agencies like NAFDAC with competence, so they run fake propaganda agencies on Facebook and bring in ethnic bigotry to create division amongst Nigerians. Instead of fixing the fake drug crisis, they manufacture fake headlines about fake drugs.
It is a presidency that thrives on deception as statecraft. Deploying a Special Adviser on Economic Affairs to do dirty social media smears shows how low governance has fallen. The office of the Vice President is now a fake news factory. The office from where Shettima the Vice President attacks Peter Obi for using statistics and comparative analogies to address economic challenges of Nigeria.
What kind of government uses AI and Photoshop to fight the opposition instead of using ideas to fight poverty? What kind of government pays aides to insult and forge, while Nigerians pay more for food, fuel and medicine?
The attack on Peter Obi has exposed them. Nigerians now see clearly that nothing this presidency says can be trusted. If they can fake a Sahara Reporters headline, they can fake inflation figures. If they can fake a quote about drugs, they can fake job numbers. If they can deploy Tope Fasua, Zara Onyinye and Ajetunmobi to lie so brazenly, it means lying is official policy.
This is not governance. This is a swindle.
Great Imo Jonathan
