A tweet claims that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari travelled to France to attend a summit that was already postponed.
The tweet has been shared more than 500 times on the social media platform.
The claim was made by Adetutu Balogun with the handle @Tutsy22, and she has over 261,000 followers.
The tweet was posted alongside a screenshot of a news report with a headline, ‘Africa-France Summit postponed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.’
The tweet read: The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria @MBuhari travelled for a summit that has been postponed.”
The Claim
The President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari travelled to France to attend a postponed summit.
The Findings
The FactCheckHub findings revealed that the claim was FALSE.
President Muhammadu Buhari had, on May 16, 2021, departed Abuja, Nigeria, for Paris in France to participate in African Finance Summit.
According to Buhari’s Personal Assistant on New Media Bashir Ahmad, the African Finance Summit would be focused on reviewing African economy, following shocks from COVID-19 pandemic, and getting relief, especially due to the increased debt burden on countries.
“President @MBuhari has departed Abuja for Paris, France ahead of the African Finance Summit which will be focused on reviewing African economy, following shocks from COVID-19 pandemic, and getting relief, especially from increased debt burden on countries. #PMBinParis pic.twitter.com/Th0nWWuclV.”
— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) May 16, 2021
Ahmad had also, on Sunday, tweeted that the president had arrived France for the summit.
In addition, the France President Emmanuel Macron, on April 22, tweeted about meeting the African leaders on May 18 to discuss sustainable financing of African economies.
“L’Afrique porte une part des solutions pour la planète. Nous soutenons la Grande muraille verte qui permet d’agir pour le climat tout en renforçant la sécurité alimentaire. Et nous irons plus loin, le 18 mai, lors du sommet sur le financement durable des économies africaines.”
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 22, 2021
A report had earlier stated that Buhari and some African leaders would be present at the summit in person while other leaders and several international organisations would be joining the summit by video conference.
A look at the news embedded in the claim Balogun made shows that the postponed summit is the ‘Africa-France Summit,’ which is totally different from the ‘African Finance Summit’ the president travelled for.
While the summit Buhari travelled for is billed to commence on May 18, in Paris, France, the Africa-France Summit, another summit entirely, will be held in early July in Montpellier, southern France. This event has been pushed to early October because of travel constraints linked to Covid-19.
The event, planned from July 8 to 10, will now take place from October 7 to 9, 2021, the French presidency confirmed to AFP.
The FactCheckHub had earlier verified three claims made by Balogun, of which two of them were found to be inaccurate.
The Verdict
The claim that the President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari travelled for a postponed summit is FALSE. The event Buhari travelled for is African Finance Summit, which is different from the postponed Africa-France Summit.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via niyioyedeji1@gmail.com. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.