# A 2026 viral story claiming President Bola Tinubu was secretly preparing a constitutional package code-named "Project True Federation" to rename Nigeria the "United States of Nigeria" and abolish Sharia law in the north was a fabrication, publicly denied by the Nigerian Presidency and unsupported by any record in the National Assembly

**Verdict: Contradicted.** The story is fabricated, and that is settled. In May 2026 a viral report claimed President Bola Tinubu was quietly assembling a constitutional-amendment package, allegedly code-named "Project True Federation," that would change Nigeria's name to the "United States of Nigeria," abolish Sharia law in the northern region, and transfer sweeping powers from the federal government to the states. The Presidency denied it outright. In a statement dated 21 May 2026 and signed by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, it said there was "no truth" to the story and that Tinubu had no plan whatsoever to send any such bill to the National Assembly, calling the report the work of desperate politicians trying to inflame the country ahead of the 2027 elections. Independent fact-checkers reached the same conclusion: Africa Check and Fact Check Africa found no bill, motion, committee process, or any legislative record tied to "Project True Federation," and no credible reporting behind it. This file is about the hoax and how it travelled, not an endorsement of any part of the claim.

Category: Hoaxes & Pop Culture · Era: 2020s · First circulated: Circulated online in mid-May 2026 through social-media posts, WhatsApp forwards, and at least one online publication that leaned on anonymous sources; denied by the Presidency in a statement dated 21 May 2026 and debunked by fact-checkers including Africa Check and Fact Check Africa within days. · Believed by: Shared largely by anonymous and pseudonymous social-media accounts and WhatsApp forwards, and by some users who mistook the report for genuine reporting. It carries no support from any credible outlet: the Nigerian Presidency denied it, and independent fact-checkers found no legislative record behind it.
URL: https://theconspiratory.com/theory/nigeria-rename-hoax

## Summary
In May 2026, a story spread across Nigerian social media and messaging apps claiming that President Bola Tinubu was secretly readying a sweeping constitutional package, said to be code-named "Project True Federation." According to the viral version, it would rename the country the "United States of Nigeria," abolish Sharia law in the northern region, and devolve major powers from the federal government to the states. The Presidency rejected the account in full. A statement dated 21 May 2026, signed by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, said there was "no truth" to the claim and that Tinubu had no plan whatsoever to send any bill by that name to the National Assembly, describing the report as the work of "desperate politicians" seeking to stir division before the 2027 general elections. Fact-checkers agreed: Africa Check and Fact Check Africa found no bill, motion, or committee record connected to "Project True Federation," and noted that a constitutional change of that scale would in any case require two-thirds majorities in both chambers of the National Assembly plus the concurrence of at least 24 state Houses of Assembly. This case file treats the report as what the record shows it to be, a fabricated rumour, and examines why a claim touching Nigeria's most sensitive fault lines travelled so fast. It does not assert any part of the claim as true.

## The claim
That President Bola Tinubu was secretly preparing a constitutional-amendment package, allegedly code-named "Project True Federation," to rename Nigeria the "United States of Nigeria," abolish Sharia law in the northern region, and transfer significant powers from the federal government to the states, so the viral report should be read as an exposure of a real government plan.

## Origin and timeline
- 2026-05: Posts and WhatsApp forwards begin circulating in Nigeria claiming that President Tinubu is quietly assembling a constitutional package to rename the country and restructure the federation. The claim attaches a specific label, "Project True Federation," and cites unnamed sources.
- 2026-05: The viral version sharpens into three headline claims: a new name, the "United States of Nigeria"; the abolition of Sharia law in the northern region; and a transfer of major powers from the federal government to the states. Each touches a raw nerve in Nigerian politics.
- 2026-05: The story spreads through social media and at least one online publication that leans on anonymous sourcing, in a period of heightened political tension ahead of the 2027 general elections.
- 2026-05-21: The Presidency issues a statement, signed by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, stating there is "no truth" to the viral story and that Tinubu has no plan whatsoever to send any bill code-named "Project True Federation" to the National Assembly.
- 2026-05-21: The statement characterises the report as the work of "desperate politicians" seeking to create disaffection, stir a political crisis, and heat the polity ahead of the 2027 elections, and says the President remains focused on his economic reforms.
- 2026-05: Nigerian outlets across the spectrum, including Punch, Channels Television, The Guardian, and PM News, carry the denial. The State House publishes the statement on its official website.
- 2026-05: Fact-checkers examine the claim. Africa Check and Fact Check Africa report finding no bill, motion, committee process, or any legislative record tied to "Project True Federation," and no credible media reporting that would be expected if the plan were real. Both rate the claim false.

## The evidence, claim by claim
- Claim: A detailed report named a specific plan, "Project True Federation," so there must be a real document behind it.
  Evidence: Fact-checkers looked and found nothing. Africa Check reported that there is no evidence of any bill, motion, committee process, or legislative proposal connected to the alleged "Project True Federation" in National Assembly records, and no credible media reporting behind it. A memorable code name is easy to invent and lends a rumour a false air of authenticity; it is not itself evidence that any such package exists.
- Claim: The Presidency only denied it because the plan was exposed, so the denial is a cover-up.
  Evidence: The denial does not stand alone. Independent, non-governmental fact-checkers reached the same conclusion by checking the public record rather than taking anyone's word for it: no bill, no motion, no committee trail. When an official denial and an independent records search point the same way, that is a very different situation from a lone interested party issuing a statement.
- Claim: A president determined to restructure Nigeria could simply push these changes through.
  Evidence: Nigeria's constitution makes a change of this scale extraordinarily hard to enact quietly. Amendments require a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the National Assembly and the concurrence of at least 24 of the 36 state Houses of Assembly. A renaming of the country and the abolition of Sharia law across the north could not move through that process in secret; it would leave an unmistakable, public legislative trail, which is exactly what fact-checkers did not find.
- Claim: The story cited sources inside government, so it was well-informed reporting.
  Evidence: The report relied on anonymous sources, and the Presidency described it as concocted by political actors to sow division ahead of the 2027 elections. Anonymous sourcing is not disqualifying on its own, but here it is paired with a total absence of any corroborating record. Reporting this consequential, if true, would be traceable to real documents and named processes; none surfaced.
- Claim: Even if the exact details are wrong, this reflects a genuine government intention.
  Evidence: That reframes a fabrication as a leak. The verifiable record shows a denied claim with no legislative footprint, not a confirmed plan reported imperfectly. This file reports the three headline claims (renaming, abolishing Sharia in the north, devolving powers) only as the content of a debunked rumour, never as an established government intention, and does not assert any of them.

## Why people believe it
- It landed on real fault lines. Questions of national identity, the place of Sharia law in the northern states, and the balance of power between the federation and the states are long-running, genuinely contested debates in Nigeria. A rumour built on top of live anxieties feels plausible precisely because the underlying tensions are real.
- The code name did rhetorical work. "Project True Federation" sounds like the kind of internal label a real government initiative might carry, and that specificity lends an invented story a false texture of authenticity that a vaguer rumour would lack.
- It arrived in a charged pre-election window. With attention already turning to the 2027 general elections, a claim that the President was quietly plotting a radical restructuring slotted neatly into existing partisan suspicion and spread on emotion before scrutiny could catch up.
- Messaging apps reward speed over checking. Much of the spread ran through WhatsApp forwards and quick social shares, formats where an alarming claim moves person to person faster than any correction, and where the original anonymous sourcing is stripped away entirely.

## Open questions
- What is actually documented is a denial and an empty legislative record, not a plan. The productive questions are about the rumour's mechanics: who first published the "Project True Federation" framing, and how it acquired its specific, quotable details.
- Why the format works is that a claim touching identity, religion, and federal power is engineered to provoke before it is checked, so even a debunked rumour can leave a residue of suspicion in readers who never see the correction.
- How fast an official denial can catch a viral forward remains the open practical problem: the Presidency's statement and the fact-checks arrived within days, but by then the original claim had already travelled widely through closed messaging channels.

## Sources
- President Tinubu Has No Plan to Change the Name of Nigeria and Abolish Sharia Law in the Northern Region, The State House, Abuja (2026): https://statehouse.gov.ng/president-tinubu-has-no-plan-to-change-the-name-of-nigeria-and-abolish-sharia-law-in-the-northern-region/
- Nigerian presidency denies planning to rename country or abolish Sharia law, Africa Check (2026): https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/meta-programme-fact-checks/nigerian-presidency-denies-planning-rename-country-or
- FACT-CHECK: No, Tinubu Is Not Planning to Rename Nigeria or Scrap Sharia Law!, Fact Check Africa (2026): https://factcheckafrica.net/debunked-claim-that-tinubu-plans-to-rename-nigeria-to-united-states-of-nigeria-or-abolish-sharia-law-is-false/
- Presidency: No plot to rename Nigeria, abolish Sharia, The Punch (2026): https://punchng.com/presidency-no-plot-to-rename-nigeria-abolish-sharia/
- Tinubu Has No Plan To Rename Nigeria, Abolish Sharia Law, Presidency, Channels Television (2026): https://www.channelstv.com/2026/05/21/tinubu-has-no-plan-to-rename-nigeria-abolish-sharia-law-presidency/
- Presidency breaks silence on viral 'United States of Nigeria' rumour, denies Tinubu plot to scrap Sharia Law, CrispNG (2026): https://crispng.com/tinubu-no-plan-rename-nigeria-abolish-sharia-law/
- Presidency debunks plan to rename Nigeria, abolish Sharia law, The Guardian Nigeria (2026): https://guardian.ng/news/presidency-debunks-plan-to-rename-nigeria-abolish-sharia-law/
- Tinubu has no plan to rename Nigeria, scrap Sharia, Presidency, PM News Nigeria (2026): https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2026/05/21/tinubu-has-no-plan-to-rename-nigeria-scrap-sharia-presidency/

Rated by The Conspiratory, a neutral, sourced encyclopedia of conspiracy theories. Full page: https://theconspiratory.com/theory/nigeria-rename-hoax