Fact Check-TIME magazine cover featuring Peter Obi is fabricated
A photo purporting to show Nigerian presidential candidate Peter Obi on the cover of the February 2023 edition of TIME magazine is fabricated, a spokesperson for the publication told Reuters.
“All eyes on Nigeria: Time for Africa’s sleeping giant to awaken,” reads the kicker on the supposed cover. Further text reads: “Peter Obi: His Labour party is favoured to win the Nigerian presidency. Are Nigerians finally ready to retire the old order and chart a new course?”
In an email to Reuters, a TIME spokesperson said: “This image is not an authentic TIME cover.”
TIME magazine keeps a public record of its previous front covers (time.com/vault/year/2023/). Reuters, however, found no cover featuring Obi in February 2023, per the publishing date on the image.
A Google keyword search for the cover did not yield any results either (bit.ly/3KF8ZEQ).
TIME did publish a story on the 2023 Nigerian elections on its website, which can be viewed (here), but Reuters did not find any TIME cover dedicated to the elections.
This misinformation narrative surfaced online after Nigerians voted in presidential elections on Feb. 25. The Nigerian electoral commission has started announcing state-by-state results, Reuters reported
VERDICT
Fabricated. No evidence that Nigerian presidential candidate Peter Obi featured on TIME magazine cover.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.
Results revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari, Abubakr Shekau, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, and Chimamanda Adichie have been listed among the most 100 influential people in the world in 2015.
An investigation by SWP Swordpress also revealed that the Director-General of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was named among the 100 influential people in 2021 while former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, Sade Adu, and Peter Obi have never been on the list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
Charly Boy was the first person to have published the claim using his verified Twitter account on February 25th, election day.
SWP Swordpress observed that the Tweet, at the time of carrying out this fact-check, has garnered 7618 Retweets, 207 quotes, 1 million views, and 30.8k likes.
