Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
The presidency has refuted the reports making the rounds, claiming President Bola Tinubu’s photo with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda is Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated just as it admitted its enhancement by AI tool.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga shared the photo on Sunday.
It was captioned: “President Bola Tinubu at a private lunch in Paris with the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, discussing world affairs and advancing Africa. Sunday, January 4, 2026”.
However, the photo generated controversy after netizens noticed it carried the watermark of “Grok”, a free AI assistant designed by xAI.
According to information on its website, Grok offers real-time search, image generation, trend analysis, and more.
Many Nigerians expressed doubt that the meeting took place, bashing the presidency for allegedly spreading falsehood.
But in a Monday statement signed by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, the presidency affirmed that the meeting took place.
It explained that the photographer only used the AI tool to improve the quality of the photo and not generate it from scratch.
The statement reads, “The narrative that the picture of Presidents Bola Tinubu and Paul Kagame taken in Paris yesterday was AI generated is not correct.
“The media report and social media comments that followed are misrepresentation of facts.
“The picture is real and not AI generated as claimed.
“Both President Kagame and President Tinubu met in Paris had lunch together on Sunday (yesterday).
“The two leaders later had dinner with President Macron same yesterday evening. The picture was taken with a phone and obviously had poor quality.
“The photographer only later used grok to improve the picture quality. That is not a reason to conclude it was AI generated.
“The writer or editor should have asked questions before this wrong conclusion.”