President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Paris has sparked widespread debate on social media after an image shared from the encounter appeared to carry an artificial intelligence (AI) watermark.
Tinubu had on Sunday disclosed that he held a private lunch with President Kagame in Paris, France, where both leaders discussed global affairs and Africa’s position in a rapidly changing world. The President shared details of the engagement on his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle, @officialABAT.
“This afternoon, I had a private lunch with H. E. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda to discuss the current state of world affairs and advancing Africa in an ever-changing global landscape,” Tinubu wrote.
The meeting came just days after the President departed Lagos for Europe on Sunday, December 28, 2025, to continue his end-of-year break, a trip earlier confirmed by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga.
However, shortly after the post went live, public attention shifted from the content of the meeting to the image attached. Social media users quickly noticed what appeared to be a Grok AI watermark on the photograph, triggering speculation about whether the image — and even the meeting itself — was authentic.
The photo soon began trending on X, with several users expressing disbelief and criticism. One user, Baby Yoo, wrote, “Mr President, please sack whoever generated this picture for you to post publicly with the GROK watermark showing. Sack your photographer too. Sack whoever approved this post. Sack your media team too.”
Another user, Amanda Chinda, remarked, “Nigeria don enter the era of ‘it happened, but did it really happen?’”
Others questioned whether President Kagame was even aware of the meeting, with Ivina asking, “Is Kagame aware he had this meeting? If he was, he would have at least posted on his own X page. Something is fishy.”
Similar reactions came from users such as Mr Gerald and Mr Czar, who queried the presence of the Grok logo on the image, while Ademola criticised the use of what he believed was an AI-generated photo for an official presidential communication.
In response to the growing controversy, the Presidency moved to clear the air. In a statement issued on Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, dismissed claims that the photograph was AI-generated, describing them as a “misrepresentation of facts.”
According to Ajayi, the meeting between Presidents Tinubu and Kagame indeed took place in Paris on Sunday.
“Both President Kagame and President Tinubu met in Paris and had lunch together on Sunday. The two leaders later had dinner with President Macron the same evening,” he said.
Ajayi explained that the image was taken with a mobile phone and initially had poor quality, adding that the photographer used Grok only to enhance the picture’s quality.
“The picture is real and not AI generated as claimed,” he stressed.
Despite the clarification, the incident has continued to fuel discussions online about the use of AI tools in official government communications and the importance of transparency in presidential media handling.