Nigerians slam New York Times for linking Buhari to Ghana MPs visa fraud

Nigerians on Friday slammed the New York Times (NYT) over the use of President Muhammadu Buhari’s photo on a story that had to do with Ghanaian lawmakers engaged in alleged United Kingdom (UK) visa fraud.

The NYT’s tweet on the visa story apparently used a photo of the Nigerian leader and his family. The Reuters photo was taken when Buhari returned from the UK after weeks of seeking medical attention.

Britain accuses some lawmakers from Ghana of falsifying visa documents for family members https://t.co/JbqurNd8q9 pic.twitter.com/CAeRDfgTj0

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) April 27, 2017

One of the earliest reactions came from a top government in charge of communications, Tolu Ogunlesi who put a humorous twist to it.

Yeah. Then you use photos of the Nigerian President and his family. The thunder that will fire you is still applying for visa. https://t.co/LDqbQSw7Ky

— tolu ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) April 27, 2017

He went further to proffer a possible reason and the situation that led the NYT to use a picture of Buhari on a visa fraud story. The NYT has since issued an apology, Ogunlesi posted that also with a tinge of humour.

.nytimes Photo Desk: We can't find any Ghana photos

.nytimes Photo Editor: Googles. Use this one. It's the only African thing we have. https://t.co/LDqbQSw7Ky

— tolu ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) April 27, 2017

“While Nigerian & Ghanaian Jollof are often mistaken for each other, the two countries are actually different.” #ApologizeLikeNYT pic.twitter.com/FwsCTIqcEL

— tolu ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) April 28, 2017

Here are some of the tweets that followed the mistaken tweet. Whiles some asked for the tweet to be pulled down, others seemed to agree with the ‘fake news’ tag President Trump continues to associate with the NYT and other media outlets. But we start with the NYT’s twitter response.

Correction: This photo of Nigeria’s president was published in error with the article. He was not involved in the visa fraud case in Ghana.

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) April 28, 2017

nytimesworld Delete the tweet!!! It's not ok to leave that picture like that. #deletethetweet

— Rebecca Enonchong (africatechie) April 28, 2017

nytimesworld pic.twitter.com/n9GvjHZhpx

— FEMI (HackettDon) April 27, 2017

nytimesworld You need to fix this ,that's the First Family of Nigeria you just disrespected. Such display of ignorance and incompetent journalism

— Toke Abdul (toke_abdul) April 27, 2017

nytimesworld pic.twitter.com/5ZZvrRfEzh

— Zayyad Lamorde (ZayyadLamorde) April 28, 2017

nytimesworld Apologizing for this grievous error is meaningless without amending this tweet! Your colleagues elsewhere take down such erroneous tweets!

— Ifedayo Adetifa (IfedayoTiffy) April 28, 2017

The UK earlier this week blacklisted three serving legislators of Ghana’s Parliament over visa fraud. A fourth person implicated is a former legislator.

The UK High Commission sent a confidential letter to the speaker of Parliament alleging that the MPs had facilitated the entry of some relatives to the UK using their diplomatic passports and failed to ensure the people returned.