Sources within the Guinean government have dismissed claims that Nigeria’s President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, is a citizen of the country following unverified reports making the rounds about his alleged ties to the country after the release of a bio-data page of what appeared to be a Guinean passport belonging to him.
Several disreputable Nigerian bloggers, one of whom was recently suspended by Twitter for violating its content rules and for his involvement in multiple disinformation campaigns targeted at high-placed individuals, had manufactured controversy over the issue, claiming that Tinubu’s purported dual citizenship amount to a violation of Nigeria’s constitution and should prevent his swearing-in.
Legal experts in the country have faulted the claim, explaining that Nigeria’s constitution does not forbid any natural-born citizen of the country, i.e. individuals born to Nigerian parents, from holding public office and elective positions even if they acquire the citizenship of other countries.
The legal clarification was, however, without prejudice to the allegations of the President-Elect’s purported dual citizenship. In fact, Guinean government officials have debunked the reports, noting that the passport bandied around on social media was a diplomatic passport issued to the President-Elect by his friend and the country’s president Alpha Conde when he invited him to the West African country as a respected African democratic figure.
One of them told Podium Reporters, “We believe those making an issue out of this are seriously mistaken. The Guinean government is known to issue diplomatic passports to respected African and global figures to encourage them to visit the country and contribute to her growth and development in diverse ways.”
“Mr. Bola Tinubu, who is now Nigeria’s President-Elect, is a political figure famous across the continent for his pro-democracy activism and general administrative brilliance. He was issued a diplomatic passport by President Alpha Conde for the same reason and that does not translate to him being a citizen of the country.”
His claim was corroborated by journalists working in the African bureaus of global media outlets, some of whom expressed worry over the tendency of politically-motivated actors, including those who parade themselves as journalists, to mislead the public using incomplete information and through sensational interpretations.
“The diplomatic passport is not even a hidden fact. It never formed part of the news cycle because it is largely irrelevant as a diplomatic gesture from a president to an influential African political figure. We see a semblance of this even in the West. It is sad that poorly-trained individuals are abusing the absence of gatekeeping in the new media to set the public on a wild goose chase with sensational and inaccurate reporting,” she said.