Saheed Ibrahim
Claim: A viral message claims the United Nations will take over Tinubu’s administration if the #EnduranceBadGovernance protest lasts 30 days.
Full Text
The August 1 to 10 #EnduranceBadGovernance protest in Nigeria is a protest against hunger and bad governance in the oil-rich nation. It is holding, despite several appeals from Federal, State and Local Government officials, religious, cultural and social groups, for the protest not to hold.
According to Premium Times, “the protest was themed “10 Days of Rage,” as a response to economic challenges, perceived as the negative impacts of President Bola Tinubu’s policies, which have led to a severe cost of living crisis and widespread socio-economic grievances”.
The protest was also organised in response to widespread insecurity and corruption in Nigeria.
It is regarded as the third nationwide protest in Nigeria after Occupy Nigeria in 2012, and EndSARS in 2020 within 12 years.
Reports have shown that the protest turned violent in some parts of the country, with lives and property lost.
There is no accurate number of casualties recorded, as the reported figures vary across news channels.
On August 2, Punch Newspaper reported that 17 people were killed while Sahara Reporters put the figures at 21 with 1,154 arrested by security agencies.
The Cable reported 14 persons killed.
There were reports of rioters looting businesses, and government offices such as the Nigeria Communications Commission Industrial Park in Kano State, Tafa LGA secretariat in Minna, a food store located at Sarari Quarters, Dala LGA
As a result, curfew has thus been declared in Borno, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Zamfara states to thwart the anti-government demonstrations.
As the protest commenced on Thursday, a message started circulating on WhatsApp and other social media platforms that the United Nations (UN) will take over President Ahmed Tinubu’s administration if the protest lasts for 30 days.
The message reads: “BREAKING NEWS ; UN will take power from TINUBU if protesters continue the protest for 15 days, it used to be 30 days but they’re doing Promo at the UN. Way to go guys”.
The post can be found on Facebook here and here. It is also circulating on X (formerly Twitter) here, here and here
We fact-checked the authenticity of this claim.
Verification
We use keyword search to verify if the UN possess any power to take over any country.
We also visited the UN’s website to verify its powers and authority.
On the website of the international body, we found that the UN does not possess any power or authority that a government has as it is just a body comprising independent states.
We also found that the UN does not have a constitution, but a charter, which is bounding on its member states.
As entrenched in the Charter’s Article 2 (7) of the purposes and principles of the international body, the UN is not empowered to intervene in domestic issues of any country.
Article 2(7) under the Purposes and Principles of the UN (Chapter I of UN Charter)
states that, “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorise the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll”.
Repeated Claim
We found that this claim is not circulating in Nigeria for the first time. During the #EndSARS protest in the country in 2020, the same claim was circulated online and was declared false. Verification of the claim can be found here, here and here.
Conclusion
The claim that the United Nations will take over Tinubu’s administration if the #EndBadGovernance protest lasts 30 days in Nigeria is FALSE.
The UN has no constitution that empowers it to interfere in the domestic affairs of any country.