Football fans know the meme-ish video in which Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s coach, seems to be conversing animatedly with a chair. In truth the Spaniard was addressing a member of the backroom staff who was off-camera. Twitter witnessed a similar scenario lately, as a video uploaded on the app on May 2 shows a young woman seemingly in a conversation with herself. She isn’t talking football strategy; she’s making a nervy presentation that touches vaguely on the importance of quality leadership in Nigeria. The questions most people asked: were there people off-camera, or was it a soliloquy tackily disguised as a dialogue? If the latter, to what end?
The young woman is Yeside Aminat Olasimbo, known publicly as Yetunde Gold. With nearly 100,000 Instagram followers, Olasimbo is a public personality of sorts. On Instagram she describes herself as a “film director”, a “Climate Justice Advocate”, and as the founder of a climate change advocacy group.
Days ago Olasimbo uploaded two videos on her Instagram and Twitter accounts. In one of the videos, which has gained a little over 15 million views on Twitter and has been the subject of heavy discussion, Olasimbo is dressed regally and supposedly addressing a hall teeming with people at the United Nations office in Geneva, Switzerland. However, the camera never pans away from Olasimbo as she makes her speech, and there is no demonstrable evidence that there is anyone else in the hall (besides the camera man or woman, of course). As Olasimbo haltingly reads the speech from her cellphone, the hall echoes in the way that empty rooms echo.
Olasimbo’s Instagram followers mostly hailed her for the milestone, but Twitter users took a closer look and then concluded she had misrepresented herself. A vast majority claimed she had not made a speech at a United Nations event, that the video had been shot in an empty hall (possibly after the main event had ended), that Olasimbo was, in fact, addressing empty chairs. The accusations of fraudulent misrepresentation would endure for days. It came attached with varying rationales explaining why Olasimbo had done the deed, ranging from self-profit, to the fascination many Africans have for Western institutions, to the failure of the Nigerian society to often question a person’s source of wealth, to the knack which the society has for rewarding the appearance of competence over actual competence. Yet Olasimbo remains steadfast in her claim that she has done no wrong, insisting she had not recorded the video in an empty hall or misrepresented herself in any way.
Who to believe?
The Parts that are True
It is true Olasimbo attended an event at the UN office in Geneva. Hosted by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the event was themed “Value-based Leadership in a Multi-Crisis World,” and took place on May 1 at the Palais des Nations, a UN conference centre. Photos which Olasimbo uploaded online show her posing in front of the UN building and inside the hall where the event took place.
The Parts People Called False
Besides the allegation that Olasimbo had recorded a video in an empty hall and then tried to pass it as a public speech, many also alleged that she had misrepresented facts in another video. In the video in question, Olasimbo shakes hands with an elderly man wearing a bischt. She captioned the video thus: “it was a great honor to meet His Excellency Mansour bin Hilal Al Mushaiti.” She added that she and Al-Mushaiti “shared ideas on partnership prospects for sustainable development.”
Mushaiti is Saudi Arabia’s minister of environment, water and agriculture. But as many people would point out, it was not Al-Mushaiti in the video, but rather Saad Ibrahim Alkhalaf, the vice president of Arrowad Group. Some would allege that Olasimbo had intentionally claimed to have met the minister of environment because publicly associating with the minister would in a way benefit Olasimbo and/or her climate change advocacy group. But some others gave her the benefit of the doubt, saying Olasimbo had probably made an honest mistake when she misidentified the minister.
A Pattern of Misrepresentation?
In Olasimbo’s personal website, she writes that she has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Lagos State University (LASU). However, several students from the department, who spoke to The Culture Custodian, claimed Olasimbo was never a student of the department. On the other hand, several students from the department of insurance claimed Olasimbo had instead studied insurance.
(An image from Olasimbo’s personal website, where she claims to have a B.Sc in Political Science from LASU.)
“Yetunde is from the insurance department in LASU. I graduated before her due to carry-overs which she had,” said a former public administration student who claimed to know Olasimbo and preferred to remain anonymous. “And for Yetunde to have said she graduated from [political] science, then she didn’t even graduate from LASU,” the source added.
At this time, it is unclear if Olasimbo graduated from the university, as she did not respond to any of the enquiries which The Culture Custodian sent to her.
Update: We have been able to confirm that Olasimbo graduated with a degree in political science from Lagos State University.