The Presidency on Monday rejected claims that a photograph of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Paris was made by artificial intelligence.
Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said the picture is genuine and was taken during an official meeting on Sunday. He spoke after social media users and some reports questioned the image’s authenticity.
“The narrative that the picture of Presidents Bola Tinubu and Paul Kagame taken in Paris yesterday was AI generated is not correct,” Ajayi said in a statement.
Ajayi said the photo was shared on social media by the President’s spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, on his Facebook page. He explained that the leaders had lunch together in Paris and later joined French President Emmanuel Macron for dinner the same evening.
He added that the image was taken with a mobile phone and that its low quality led someone to improve it digitally afterwards. “The picture is real and not AI generated as claimed. The photographer only later used Grok to improve the picture quality. That is not a reason to conclude it was AI generated,” Ajayi said.
The Presidency also criticised reporters who described the photo as fake without checking first. “The writer or editor should have asked questions before this wrong conclusion,” Ajayi said.
The office asked journalists and the public to verify facts before sharing claims that could mislead people. The clarification aims to calm growing online doubts over the photo and the leaders’ meeting in Paris.
