A fabricated quote. A viral flyer. And a political firestorm that never needed to happen.
On Thursday, 11 September 2026, a flyer bearing the image of Peter Obi — the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate for 2027 — began circulating rapidly across social media. The flyer, designed to look like a screenshot from an Arise Television broadcast, carried a quote attributed to Obi that read: “The Yoruba Muslims are not practising real Islam. Real Islam is being practised only in the North; that’s why the president should do Sallah in Sokoto or Kano.”
The Claim Spreads Fast
The flyer moved quickly. X user @Sistaliano posted it with the caption: “This is an insult to the Yorubas, especially Muslims. Somebody needs to call this fool to order.” That single post attracted over 130 reposts, 250 comments and 250 likes. Another user, @YemmyAj, piled on with: “Give Peter Obi mic, and he will campaign against himself.”
The reaction was swift and predictable. A quote touching on ethnicity and religion, attached to the face of a prominent presidential aspirant — it was designed to provoke. It succeeded. Hundreds engaged with the post before anyone thought to check whether Obi had actually said it.
He had not.
What the Arise TV Interview Actually Shows
Fact-checkers at TheCableCheck reviewed the full Arise Television interview in question. The recording, published on YouTube, runs for under 50 minutes. They found no such remark anywhere in the footage — not about Yoruba Muslims, not about the authenticity of their faith, nothing of the sort.
What Obi did say touched on Sallah, but in an entirely different context. He criticised President Bola Tinubu for spending the Sallah holidays in Lagos rather than using the occasion to build bridges across the country
That is the full extent of what he said on the matter. It is a comment about national unity and presidential symbolism — not a theological verdict on any ethnic group’s religious practice.
The Verdict Is Clear
The quote in the viral flyer is fabricated. It does not appear in the Arise Television interview. No verified source supports the attribution. The claim is false.
This matters beyond the usual fact-check box-ticking. Nigeria’s political environment in the run-up to 2027 is already charged. Manufactured quotes that pit ethnic and religious identities against each other are not harmless mischief — they are a deliberate tool of destabilisation. The speed with which this particular flyer spread shows how effective, and how dangerous, that tool can be.
Where Obi Stands Ahead of 2027
For context, Obi resigned from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on 2 May 2026 and was ratified as the NDC presidential candidate on 29 May 2026. His campaign has sought to position him as a unifying figure across regional and religious lines — which is precisely why a quote of this nature, had it been genuine, would have been so politically damaging.
Separately, during the same Arise News interview, Obi made a notable claim that the North stands to benefit most from his proposed administration. He argued that northern poverty predates the removal of the fuel subsidy and that agricultural reform holds the key to addressing the region’s deep structural challenges. That is a substantive political position worth scrutinising. The fabricated quote is not.
Nigerians sharing content online would do well to pause before amplifying inflammatory material — particularly when it arrives pre-packaged with outrage and no verifiable source.