Sokoto, Sokoto state – Social media has been abuzz with an image of Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and the head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria (SCIAN), dressed like an idolater.
A viral photograph depicted the Sultan wearing a black garment decorated with local cutting combs, bones, red charms, and cowries.
On X (formerly Twitter), users like @MilesHopkins15 posted the picture with a caption that advised the Sultan to embrace the indigenous religion fully.
The tweet has garnered over 157,000 views, more than 100 replies, around 340 retweets, 1,500 likes, and 59 bookmarks.
@MilesHopkins15 wrote:
“It’s never too late. It will be better for Sultan of Sokoto to embrace Isese.
“The only and absolute way of life.”
The claim can also be found in this Facebook post.
But is this claim about the Sultan of Sokoto true? A fact-checking platform, Dubawa, checked.
Following its scrutiny, the platform said it noticed the image was excessively blurred, which is usually a sign of manipulation. A Google keyword search revealed an image of the Sultan with headgear and facial expressions similar to those in the viral photo. This picture of the Sultan has been used in several media reports.
Using Google Lens, the fact-checking platform discovered that the original version of the picture was published on Wikimedia on November 5, 2015. The photo was made public with the caption “War armour in Yoruba land” and a description that says, “This is an image of cultural fashion or adornment from Nigeria.”
In the original version, an unknown man was seen wearing the same attire used to represent the Sultan.
The fact-checking platform, therefore, concluded that the viral image of the Sultan of Sokoto dressed like a witch doctor was manipulated to paint a misleading narrative.
