For a man who has spent decades in Nigerian politics, you would think something as basic as age would be settled by now. But for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, even birthdays still raise eyebrows.
The Nigerian president recently marked his 74th birthday, but resurfaced newspaper clippings from 2001 have reignited an old question about how old Tinubu really is.
The Confusion
The clippings show Tinubu being celebrated at 49 years old in 2001 during his time as governor of Lagos State. At first glance, some social media users saw this as a contradiction. But the math is straightforward: 
49 in 2001 means he was born around 1952, which makes him 74 in 2026.
Rather than exposing an inconsistency, the records actually align with his official age.
The 2021 Wikipedia drama
Still, this isn’t the first time Tinubu’s age has trended online.
In March 2021, when Bola Ahmed Tinubu celebrated his 69th birthday, screenshots of a Wikipedia page began circulating, claiming he was born on March 29, 1942.
That would have made him 79 at the time, fuelling accusations that he had reduced his age by a decade.
But there is a major problem: Wikipedia is editable by the public, and Tinubu’s page has been repeatedly altered in the past, sometimes multiple times in a single day.
At different points, his birth year reportedly shifted between 1932, 1939, 1942, and 1952 before being locked to prevent further edits.
The “7 years older than his daughter” claim
Around the same period when there were previous speculation around his age, another claim went viral and arguably caused even more confusion. Posts online alleged that Tinubu was only seven years older than his daughter, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo.
His daughter Folashade Tinubu-Ojo’s page read that she was 62 at the time when Tinubu was 69.
It sounded outrageous back then. However, fact-checkers found no evidence to support this claim, noting that both Tinubu’s and his daughter’s ages had also been tampered with online, especially on Wikipedia.
In reality, available records place his daughter much younger, making the claim mathematically and logically flawed.
Tinubu’s age keeps coming up for a few key reasons:
- Editable online sources like Wikipedia, which have been repeatedly vandalised.
- Political opposition, where personal details become talking points
- Nigeria’s record-keeping gaps, especially for people born in the 1950s.
What the records actually show
Despite the noise, most verifiable sources consistently list Bola Ahmed Tinubu as born on March 29, 1952.
Even more interesting? The 2001 newspaper birthday was posted by archive.ng now going viral actually reinforces that he is actually 74.
READ ALSO: See All of Bola Tinubu’s Wives and Children
The bottom line
For all the speculation, there is still no concrete, verifiable evidence that Tinubu is older or younger than officially stated. What exists instead is a mix of edited online pages, viral claims, and political narratives.
And as long as those continue to circulate, Tinubu’s age may remain one of Nigeria’s most persistent political talking points.
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