Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has dismissed the speculation that President Muhammadu Buhari had died and was impersonated by someone from Sudan.
Obasanjo expressed surprise that many Nigerians believed the fictitious story and blamed it on the abuse of social media.
The statesman in a video explained he was asked by a very important person, who asked for his opinion on the rumoured death of President Buhari.
The former president said the person told him the information had garnered credence on social media.
Obasanjo wondered how Buhari could have died and be replaced with someone from Sudan without him knowing about it.
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He said, “Somebody came to me, a very high hub person, saying tell me about this talk of Buhari not being Buhari.
“I said ‘do you believe them?’ He said, ‘well, it is in the social media’. I said ‘how will Buhari die and we will not know that Buhari has died and they will bring us somebody from Sudan to be Buhari?’
“It’s ridiculous to the extreme. But you have it in the social media and you see people believing it,” Obasanjo expressed concern.
While accepting the fact that the social media is good, Obasanjo, however, regretted that it is being abused.
He advocated teaching the youths and the children about the dangers inherent in abusing the social media.
“Social media is good, but it can be abused. We have to train our youths and our children about the dangers of the social media,” he submitted.
Obasanjo has been one of past leaders critical of Buhari’s unpopular policies and inactions, particularly on the surging challenges of insecurity and bad economy.