‘President of Africa’ cleared by Reuters of US invasion threat to support Trump

Last week, I blogged here about the fact that the Reuters news agency was investigating  – for a second time – whether ‘President Obonjo’ (aka comedian Benjamin Bello) really is the president of an African country.

In fact, this time, the worrying suspicion was that he is actually the President of the whole of Africa and that he had threatened to invade the US in support of Donald Trump. 

Reuters have today – presumably after a week of detailed research and fact-checking – come up with their conclusion… printed in full below…

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Fact Check: Video of ‘African President’ American invasion is a comedy skit

By Reuters Fact Check

March 14, 2024

A video of comedian Benjamin Bankole Bello playing his character “President Obonjo of Lafta Republic” has been shared online as showing the “President of Africa” threatening to invade America over Trump’s prosecution.

The clip shared on Instagram shows Bello saying, in part, “If Biden and his people continue to prosecute Donald Trump, then I tell you this much, we will invade America.” The video is overlaid with text reading,“The President of Africa threatens to invade America over Biden’s corruption” and “Imagine Trump being so racist he had the backing of all of Africa and their President.”

Comments in response include: “But people would still say trump is racist and he’s the problem. Meanwhile you have Presidents from other countries defending the man because they know he’s still is rightfully so the COMMANDER AND CHIEF” and “He’s sending his soldiers to infiltrate via the open south border.”

The circulating clip is a snippet from a TikTok video posted by Bello on his account “presidentobonjo” on Oct. 4, 2023, after Trump appeared in court in a civil fraud case on Oct. 2.

The comedian regularly shares skits dressed as the same character on his social media profiles.

Ian Hawkins, a spokesperson for Bello, said in an email that President Obonjo is a comedy character created by the comedian and parodies world leaders. “The President often comments satirically on news events and current affairs,” Hawkins added.

Reuters has previously addressed another video of Bello’s character misrepresented online as the “African President.”

VERDICT

Satire. The video shows comedy character “President Obanjo” played by UK-based comedian Benjamin Bello.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

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…and who is to say they don’t?

Reuters suspects that a comedian may secretly be a real-life African dictator…

With all the misinformation swirling around, it is good to know that the Reuters news agency takes its journalistic responsibilities seriously when supplying worldwide news and media sources with facts.

But a joke’s a joke.

Reuters employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. 

In August last year, Reuters fact-checked President Obonjo, a British stand-up comedy act that has been performing for over ten years. 

The shtick is that President Obonjo is the leader/dictator of the Lafta Republic in Africa.

So convincing did many people (largely Americans) find this act that they believed President Obonjo was real.

Last August, Reuters’ initial fact-check was triggered when prominent right-wing commentator Melissa Tate shared a video of President Obonjo calling on America “to release Donald Trump immediately”.

Melissa Tate shared his online appeal with her 530,000 followers on Twitter as if it were real. 

She captioned the clip: “African President expresses sadness of the loss of democracy in America following the Biden regime’s arrest of a former President & the disrespect of a mugshot. The world is watch[ing] the fall of America in amazement.” (I blogged about it all at the time HERE.)

When Reuters carried out a fact-check and discovered for certain last August that Malcolm Hardee Comedy Award winner President Obonjo was indeed ‘just’ a comedy act – even if a very good comedy act – that seemed to be the end of it.

But, this week, Reuters was sleuthing again – double or maybe triple checking that the good President was not a real African head of state masquerading for some inexplicable reason as a UK comedian.

It takes a big stretch of the imagination, but Reuters’ experienced team was prepared to make that stretch.

This time, they were checking a TikTok video (shared on Instagram) in which President Obonjo threatened to invade the US “if Biden and his people continue to prosecute Donald Trump”. It was re-posted by humanities_truth_ with the line “The president of Africa threatens to invade America over Biden’s corruption”.

A member of President Obonjo’s fictional Ministry of Media Relations was able to reassure Reuters that such an invasion is not imminent:

“Thank you for your enquiry. I am pleased to confirm that President Obonjo is indeed a character created by the comedian Benjamin Bello and the clip you provided is of him commenting in character on the news. 

“President Obonjo of Lafta Republic is a comedy character who has appeared in a British TV special on ITVX and at numerous comedy festivals in the UK. The President often comments satirically on news events and current affairs. It is a sign of the times that a comedian who parodies world leaders is hard to distinguish from a genuine politician. So long as politicians keep clowning, it’s entirely fair for President Obonjo to play them at their own game, with better jokes and less collateral damage. For more information please see www.presidentobonjo.com” 

I fear (or do I mean hope?) that, in US election year, this may not be the last we hear of Obonjo-gate. Of course, if Reuters were able to uncover the truth, it would be a real coup for them.

…MORE ON THIS STORY HERE…