{"id":2620,"date":"2018-12-11T15:49:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T15:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2018-12-11T15:49:39","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T15:49:39","slug":"nigerian-president-denies-being-replaced-by-lookalike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2018\/12\/11\/nigerian-president-denies-being-replaced-by-lookalike\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian president denies being replaced by lookalike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"t-content__chapo\">Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday quashed a rumour stemming from his ill health that he had died and been replaced by a lookalike impostor from Sudan, his spokesman said.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"m-interstitial\">\n<div class=\"m-interstitial__ad\">\n<div class=\"m-block-ad \">\n<article>\n<div class=\"t-content__body\">\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s real me, I assure you. I will soon celebrate my 76th birthday and I will still go strong,&#8221;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/muhammadu-buhari\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buhari<\/a>\u00a0said as he met with the Nigerian diaspora in Poland, where he is attending the UN COP24 climate summit in Katowice.<\/p>\n<p>He was answering a question from the audience about repeated claims &#8212; spread via tweets, Facebook posts and YouTube videos &#8212; that the leader of Africa&#8217;s most populous nation was an imposter called &#8220;Jubril&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A lot of people hoped that I died during my ill health. Some even reached out to the Vice President to consider them to be his deputy because they assumed I was dead,&#8221; Buhari said, according to a statement signed by his spokesman Garba Shehu.<\/p>\n<p>He referred to those who started the rumour as &#8220;ignorant&#8221; and &#8220;irreligious&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Buhari, who is seeking re-election next year, spent a large part of 2017 in London for treatment for a serious illness, which has never been revealed to the public.<\/p>\n<p>A lack of specific information about the illness, along with Buhari&#8217;s gaunt features and a reduction in public appearances have fed speculation about his well-being.<\/p>\n<p>Claims about the president&#8217;s identity emerged a month after Buhari returned from another lengthy medical trip to London.<\/p>\n<p>Those pushing the rumour were known critics of the president and his government.<\/p>\n<p><em>(AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"t-content__authors\">\n<div class=\"m-author-n-reading-time\">\n<div class=\"m-from-author\">Text by:<a class=\"m-from-author__name\" title=\"NEWS WIRES\" href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/news-wires\">NEWS WIRES<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"o-ad-container o-ad-container--outbrain\"><\/div>\n<section>\n<div class=\"t-content__list-content\">\n<aside class=\"o-aside-content o-aside-content--related o-aside-content--overflow-background\">\n<div class=\"o-aside-content__row o-aside-content__row--center\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday quashed a rumour stemming from his ill health that he had died and been replaced by a lookalike impostor from Sudan, his spokesman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2621,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions\/2621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}