FACT-CHECK: Old Newspaper Front Page Manipulated to Attribute Madness Testimony to Tinubu

By Peter Emmanuel |

CLAIM

A newspaper front page circulating on Facebook is being presented as an authentic edition of P.M. NEWS dated Monday, July 17, 2006.

The front page carries the headline, “How I Was Cured Of Madness — Bola Tinubu, Lagos’s Gov Gives Testimony In Church,” and identifies the publication as P.M. NEWS, Vol. 12 No. 126.

The image is being circulated as evidence that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was then Governor of Lagos State, gave a church testimony about being cured of madness.

VERIFICATION

Original Newspaper Page Featured Femi Fani-Kayode

DNN FactCheck examined the circulating image against the July 17, 2006 edition of P.M. NEWS preserved in the Archivi.

The original newspaper page carries the headline “HOW I WAS CURED OF MADNESS”, but the story does not identify Bola Ahmed Tinubu as its subject. Instead, the page features Femi Fani-Kayode, who was a member of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration at the time.

Fani-Kayode had served as Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Public Affairs before he was appointed Minister of Culture and Tourism in June 2006. He was still serving in that capacity when the July 17, 2006 edition of P.M. NEWS was published. He was later redeployed to the Ministry of Aviation in November 2006. His official biography confirms that he served as Minister of Culture and Tourism from June 22 to November 7, 2006.

This establishes an important difference between the original publication and the version now circulating online. The authentic newspaper page features Fani-Kayode’s photograph and identifying information alongside the “HOW I WAS CURED OF MADNESS” headline, while the circulating version replaces those details with Tinubu’s photograph and name.

P.M. NEWS Confirms Its Archival Material Was Altered

The finding is also supported by P.M. NEWS, which recently addressed another version of the same 2006 newspaper page that had been altered to feature Peter Obi.

P.M. NEWS stated that the circulating version was digitally altered, explaining that the photograph of the actual subject of the original story had been replaced and that the original name on the newspaper rider had also been changed.

The newspaper further stated that it never published the purported story titled “How I Was Cured of Madness – Peter Obi, Anambra’s Gov Gives Testimony in Church.” It said the use of its genuine masthead, date and page design did not make the altered material an authentic publication.

This is significant to the Tinubu version because the same historical newspaper page is being presented with a different person’s photograph and identifying information. The alteration of the original page does not change the identity of the person who appeared in the authentic 2006 publication.

The Original Page and the Circulating Version Do Not Match

A comparison of the original July 17, 2006 page with the circulating image shows that several genuine elements of the newspaper have been retained, including the P.M. NEWS masthead, publication date and general page layout.

However, the identity of the person featured in the main story has been changed.

In the original publication, Femi Fani-Kayode appears alongside the “HOW I WAS CURED OF MADNESS” headline. In the version circulating with Tinubu, his photograph and identifying details are replaced with those of Tinubu.

This means that the image does not represent the original newspaper page as it was published in 2006. Rather, it uses an authentic historical newspaper design and page structure while altering the person at the centre of the story.

WHAT WE FOUND

DNN FactCheck found that the newspaper page itself is based on a genuine P.M. NEWS publication dated July 17, 2006, but the version circulating with Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s photograph and name has been manipulated.

The authentic page featured Femi Fani-Kayode, who was then serving as Minister of Culture and Tourism under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. He was appointed to the ministry on June 22, 2006, weeks before the newspaper edition was published, and remained there until his November 2006 redeployment to the Ministry of Aviation.

The circulating version replaces Fani-Kayode’s photograph and identifying information with Tinubu’s, creating the impression that Tinubu was the person referred to in the original story.

DNN FactCheck also found that P.M. NEWS has publicly confirmed that a similar version of the same newspaper page featuring Peter Obi was digitally altered and was not an authentic publication of the newspaper.

The evidence therefore shows that the presence of a genuine newspaper masthead, date and layout cannot by itself establish that the content shown in a circulating image is authentic. In this case, those genuine elements have been retained while the identity of the original subject has been changed.

CONCLUSION

The claim that P.M. NEWS published a July 17, 2006 story stating that Bola Ahmed Tinubu was cured of madness and gave a testimony about it in church is false.

The original newspaper page did carry the headline “HOW I WAS CURED OF MADNESS,” but it featured Femi Fani-Kayode, who was then Minister of Culture and Tourism under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

The version circulating with Tinubu’s photograph and name is a manipulated version of the original newspaper page. P.M. NEWS has also confirmed that another version of the same archival page, altered to feature Peter Obi, was digitally manipulated and was not published by the newspaper in that form.