Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari says he did not find it funny that many of his country’s citizens believed the rumour that he was dead and had been replaced with a lookalike named Jubril who was from Sudan.
The Nigerian leader spoke in a documentary shown Friday night at a private dinner in Abuja organised by his family and associates to celebrate his 80th birthday. The event was tagged “Celebrating A Patriot, a Leader, an Elder Statesman.”
“Yes! People said I am somebody from Sudan. I didn’t bother with the name. Nigerians have mischievous ways of explaining themselves,” Mr Buhari said.
When asked if he found the rumour funny, Mr Buhari said: “No. It’s not funny. Because those who made those statements, they just want to be cheeky. They want to distract attention from the main issue.”
The rumour that the president had been replaced by a lookalike called Jibrin, from Sudan, gained notoriety during Mr Buhari’s first term in office when he spent months in a London hospital due to illness.
The rumour was made popular by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
IPOB is a group leading the agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria.
Mr Kanu, leader of the separatist group, was based outside the country at the time he popularised the rumour.
