No, Finland's president did not post video in support of Nigerian separatists

A post on social media wrongfully claims that Alexander Stubb supports the Biafra separatist movement in Nigeria.

Transcript

00:00No, Finland's president didn't post a video in support of Nigerian separatists.

00:09A video shared widely on social media appears to show Finland's president Alexander Stubb

00:14throwing his weight behind the Biafra movement, which hopes to secede from Nigeria.

00:19In the video, Stubb appears alongside an image of Simon Ekpa,

00:23a Finnish politician and Biafran political activist

00:26who has declared himself the leader and prime minister of the Biafra Republic government in exile.

00:31Stubb evokes the Finnish Winter War and how Finns understand

00:34what the intended audience of the video is going through,

00:38vowing his country's support for as long as it takes.

00:41We support you because it is morally right.

00:45We support you because you're fighting for your independence.

00:49However, the original video has nothing to do with the Biafra movement at all.

00:53A reverse image search of a still from the video takes us straight to where it first came from,

00:58the official X account of Stubb himself.

01:01Here it's clear that it was shared in the context of support for Ukraine

01:05after the country marked a thousand days fending off Russia's full-scale invasion in November.

01:11The president makes no reference at all to Nigeria or Biafra.

01:15The altered video was shared on X by an account that regularly posts pro-Biafra content,

01:20regardless of the truth behind it.

01:22For good measure, X has since added a tag beneath the video explaining that it's been taken out of context.

01:28The Republic of Biafra was a partially recognised state in West Africa

01:32that existed between 1967 and 1970.

01:35It surrendered to Nigeria after three years of war.

01:39However, various Biafran secessionist groups have since emerged,

01:43including the Indigenous People of Biafra, a group of which X proclaims to lead a faction.

01:48Nigeria has labelled the IPOB a terrorist organisation.