Former Abia commissioner addresses Buhari vs Jubril controversy
A former Commissioner for Information in Abia State, John Okiyi Kalu, has recounted a personal encounter with former President Muhammadu Buhari, during which he dismissed the long-standing rumour that the late Nigerian leader had been replaced by a body double known as “Jubril from Sudan.”
Kalu, who served under former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu between 2015 and 2023, shared his recollection in a Facebook post on Tuesday, two days after Buhari’s death at the age of 82 in a London hospital.
Buhari was buried on Tuesday in his hometown of Daura, Katsina State, in line with Islamic rites and amid tributes from leaders and citizens across the country.
The rumour, which first gained traction in 2018, alleged that Buhari had died in 2017 during a medical trip to the United Kingdom and was replaced by a Sudanese impostor. The conspiracy theory was widely promoted by Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who claimed those close to Buhari had sworn to secrecy over the alleged cloning.
However, Kalu dismissed the theory, recalling that he met the then-president in December 2018 during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Abia State Government and the Federal Government for the Enyimba Economic City project.
“That was my second opportunity to meet President Muhammadu Buhari up close, the first being during his campaign visit to Aba in January 2015,” Kalu said.
According to him, though he never believed the rumours, he was eager to personally observe the president and verify the truth for himself.
“I must confess that the major thing on my mind when we visited Buhari’s Aso Rock in 2018 was to personally verify if he was the same General Buhari we celebrated as children in 1983,” Kalu wrote.
He said he closely studied Buhari’s facial features, including a prominent forehead mark and physical attributes such as his height, long chin, and gait — all of which, according to him, matched the Buhari he remembered from decades earlier.
Kalu described Buhari as jovial and unpretentious during the event. He also recalled a humorous exchange between the president and a lawyer who reminded Buhari of their long political history together.
“When the lawyer told Buhari he had supported him from 2003 until 2015, Buhari replied, ‘You were with me in 2003, I lost; in 2007, I lost; in 2011, I lost; and when you left me in 2015, I won.’ I couldn’t help chuckling,” Kalu said.
The former commissioner concluded by affirming that the man he saw at the Presidential Villa in 2018 was unmistakably the same Muhammadu Buhari who ruled Nigeria in the 1980s and again from 2015 to 2023.
