{"id":47,"date":"2018-12-04T00:58:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T00:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/surfshields.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/04\/nigerias-president-denies-conspiracy-theories-that-hes-a-human-clone\/"},"modified":"2018-12-04T00:58:19","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T00:58:19","slug":"nigerias-president-denies-conspiracy-theories-that-hes-a-human-clone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surfshields.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/04\/nigerias-president-denies-conspiracy-theories-that-hes-a-human-clone\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerias president denies conspiracy theories that hes a human clone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nThe president of Nigeria<\/a> has been forced to deny that he is a human clone after rumors circulated on social media that he had died and been replaced by a Sudanese lookalike called \u201cJubril.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen asked about the conspiracy at a conference in Poland, President Muhammadu Buhari called the rumors \u201cirreligious,” and drew laughter from the crowd when he denied being a \u201cclone.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOne of the questions that came up today in my meeting with Nigerians<\/a> in Poland was on the issue of whether I\u2018ve been cloned or not,\u201d he wrote in a tweet on Sunday. \u201cThe ignorant rumors are not surprising \u2014 when I was away on medical vacation last year a lot of people hoped I was dead.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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One of the questions that came up today in my meeting with Nigerians in Poland was on the issue of whether I\u2018ve been cloned or not. The ignorant rumours are not surprising \u2014 when I was away on medical vacation last year a lot of people hoped I was dead. pic.twitter.com\/SHTngq6LJU<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) December 2, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\nPresident Buhari was speaking with Poland\u2019s Nigerian diaspora ahead of the United Nations Conference of the Parties climate<\/a> talks in the city of Katowice.\n<\/p>\n

\nRumors that Buhari was dead have appeared on social media since he took a medical trip to London in 2017. The conspiracy has be fanned by members of the political opposition and the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) party, who claim there is evidence that the president has been replaced by Jubril, a man some believe was imported from Sudan.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"PHOTO:next24online\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/span><\/picture><\/div>
President Muhammadu Buhari looks on after he signs the Instrument of Ratification for International Agreements between Nigeria and Other Countries in Abuja, Nigeria, Aug. 24, 2017.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\nBuhari\u2019s denial that he has been cloned comes after influential IPOB member and advocate for the conspiracy theory, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, resurfaced in Israel in October, having gone missing for over a year, according to the BBC<\/a>. Since his reappearance, Kanu has repeatedly claimed to have evidence supporting the theory.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe president\u2019s remarks in Poland and his subsequent tweet was the first time he has publicly denied the bizarre claims. He also said that his vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, had been contacted by people believing the conspiracy theory, which \u201cembarrassed him a lot.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

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Poor @ProfOsinbajo<\/a>, even he had to deal with the rumours \u2014 Some people reached out to him to consider them to be his Vice President because they assumed I was dead. That embarrassed him a lot; we discussed it when he visited me while I was convalescing.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) December 2, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\nMatthew T. Page, author of \u201cNigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know,\u201d and an associate fellow at Chatham House, an international affairs think tank, told ABC News that conspiracy theories play an important role in Nigerian political life.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIn recent decades, these stories have helped Nigerians process and understand unexplained political events and erratic behaviors that seem irrational and insensitive to the everyday struggles most Nigerians experience,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the Nigerian government\u2019s non-transparency, standoffishness, and tendency to mislead and conceal that gives conspiracy theories the oxygen they need to spread and snowball.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nABC News’ James Bwala contributed reporting from Maiduguri, Nigeria<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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