Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari says he’s not dead, and to prove it, he gave a statement Sunday in which he was alive.
“It’s the real me, I assure you,” Buhari — and not the Sudanese body double who supposedly had taken his place — said Sunday in Poland, where he was attending the UN COP24 climate summit. “I will soon celebrate my 76th birthday and I will still go strong.”
Buhari, who was elected in 2015 and will seek re-election in February, has been in ill health throughout his presidency.
Poor @ProfOsinbajo, even he had to deal with the rumours — Some people reached out to him to consider them to be his Vice President because they assumed I was dead. That embarrassed him a lot; we discussed it when he visited me while I was convalescing.
— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) December 2, 2018
I can assure you all that this is the real me. Later this month I will celebrate my 76th birthday. And I’m still going strong!
— Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) December 2, 2018
Rumors of his premature death started in 2017 when Buhari spent seven weeks in London for medical treatment. The nature of his ill health has never been revealed to the public.
The conspiracy theories abated when Buhari returned to the African nation, but increased again last month when opposition leaders and separatists claimed he had been long dead.
The repeated claims spread on social media and in YouTube videos alleging the Nigerian leader was actually an imposter from Sudan named “Jubril.”
In a statement released by the president’s spokesman Garba Shehu, Buhari said: “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.”
