Nigeria's president swears he's not a clone

If you thought former President Barack Obama being forced to deny having a fake birth certificate was outlandish, the president of Nigeria may have one-upped him — he just had to assure the public that he is still alive.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday publicly denied being a clone or an imposter, responding to a conspiracy theory that the real Buhari actually died last year. "It's the real me, I assure you," Buhari said at a town hall event, per The Washington Post. On Twitter, he addressed his 1.7 million followers regarding "the issue of whether I've been cloned or not."

Wild claims spread after Buhari went on medical leave in 2017, and they aren't just confined to fringe online videos; an aide to the previous Nigerian president promoted the idea, BBC News reports. The conspiracies range from those who insist Buhari was replaced by an imposter to those who think he was actually cloned before his "death." Political activist Nnamdi Kanu just last week suggested in a widely shared tweet that Buhari must be an imposter because he "suddenly switched his writing hand from left to right."

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Buhari said Sunday that proponents of this theory are "ignorant" and "irreligious," adding that the conspiracy even led some to reach out his vice president instead of him. But Buhari assured the public that he's still "going strong" and will celebrate his 76th birthday this month, even though "a lot of people hoped I was dead."