Post misrepresents Australian writer’s opinion as official US stance on Nigerian election

As Nigeria’s Supreme Court prepares to make a final decision on a disputed election that handed Bola Tinubu the presidency, his opponents continue to call for his removal. Recent social media posts alleged that a US military leader warned the Supreme Court against ruling in Tinubu’s favour or face “consequences”. But the claim is false: AFP Fact Check confirmed the person in question is an Australian researcher and writer. Social media posts misrepresented his background after he commented on Tinubu in a podcast.

“US warns Nigeria’s Supreme Court against confirming Tinubu as president,” reads a post published on X, formerly Twitter, on October 14, 2023.

It includes photos of US President Joe Biden and Nigerian leader Bola Tinubu. The purported warning, according to the claim, was issued by “US military general” Gregory Copley during an interview about the outcome of Nigeria’s elections in February.

Shared more than 1,900 times, the claim was posted by a known supporter of Nigerian opposition Labour Party’s Peter Obi.

Jackson Ude, the publisher of the US-based Point Blank News, published a similar post, claiming that Copley is a “major general” in the US military and, in that capacity, warned of the “dire consequences if the supreme court affirms Bola Tinubu’s presidency (sic)”.

Ude’s post features a nine-minute audio interview between Copley and an anchor who identifies himself as John Batchelor.

A former Tinubu ally and opposition politician, Dele Momodu, shared a photo of the front page of a Nigerian newspaper that he owns, headlined: “General Gregory Copley predicts Armageddon in Nigeria.”

The same news outlet also published a report in which Copley was identified as a “prominent American citizen” and a “general”.

The claim also circulated on X and Facebook, including here, here and here.

Disputed election

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) the winner of the February presidential elections.

But opposition parties rejected the results, alleging the poll was marred by widespread violence and rigging.

Tinubu’s closest challengers, Obi and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), petitioned an election tribunal to set aside the results, with each of them claiming victory.

The tribunal ruled in Tinubu’s favour on September 6, 2023 (archived here). Obi and Abubakar then appealed to the country’s Supreme Court, which is yet to make a ruling.

The claim that the US has warned the court against upholding Tinubu’s election victory is false.

Not a US official

A keyword search for “Gregory Copley” led to a LinkedIn profile for Gregory R. Copley (archived here).

Copley lists his work experience as being the president of the International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA) as well as the editor-in-chief of the Defense & Foreign Affairs Publications.

ISSA describes itself (archived here) as a Washington DC-based non-government association of professionals involved in “national management, particularly in national and international security and strategic policy”.

There is no mention of any military experience or of him ever being employed by the US government.

Seconds into the audio clip in Ude’s post, the speaker identifies himself as John Batchelor and introduces his colleague “Gregory Copley” as the publisher of the Defense and Foreign Affairs website (archived here).

A keyword search for “John Batchelor Gregory Copley” led to the original version of the audio clip published on a podcast-hosting website called AudioBoom (archived here).

Information on the page shows that the clip was an episode of The John Batchelor Show, and Batchelor is the host.

Batchelor also posted a link to the podcast on X (formerly Twitter) on October 11, 2023, without any reference to Copley being an army General or spokesperson of the United States (archived here).

AFP Fact Check contacted Copley who said he is an Australian and “obviously was not” a spokesman for the US government.

“I was never a major general in the US military,” he wrote in an email to AFP Fact Check. “I am an Australian citizen.”

US support

The United States was one of the first Western countries to congratulate Tinubu when he was sworn in as president in May.

Biden said in a statement on May 29, 2023, that he looked forward to working with “President Tinubu to support economic growth, advance security, and promote respect for human rights” (archived here).

Biden and Tinubu also met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in India in September. The US leader praised his Nigerian counterpart for his “strong leadership as the chair of the Economic Community of West African States to defend and preserve democracy and the rule of law in Niger and the broader region” (archived here).