Outspoken Nigerian author and social media influencer Reno Omokri has launched a scathing attack on the growing mythos surrounding Burkina Faso’s junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, accusing his regime of manufacturing lies, suppressing journalists, and manipulating African audiences with AI-generated propaganda.
In a fiery post on X (formerly Twitter), Omokri didn’t mince words. “It is shocking that people watch these videos of the Burkinabe junta leader, Ibrahim Traore, speaking English fluently and inspiringly and cannot even fathom that these are AI-generated videos,” he wrote.
According to Omokri, Captain Traoré—hailed in many online circles as a revolutionary pan-African hero—is being falsely portrayed as a charismatic English speaker and debt-slaying liberator.
“Captain Traore is not fluent in English,” he asserted. “Traore does not grant interviews because he and his propagandists do not want you to know that he is not the one speaking in those videos.”
Omokri dismissed widely circulated claims that Traoré has paid off Burkina Faso’s debts and is now building free houses for citizens as outright falsehoods.
“Those are lies,” he stated bluntly. “Burkina Faso’s debt has actually increased, and the country’s debt is estimated at 65% of its GDP, which is far higher than Nigeria and Ghana.”
Citing data from international institutions, Omokri noted that Burkina Faso currently owes approximately $6 billion to foreign lenders and is teetering on the brink of default.
He further pointed to what he described as an environment of brutal suppression of press freedom in Burkina Faso, where “journalists are being arrested and jailed without trial in large numbers,” naming Guezouma Sanogo, Luc Pagbelguem, and Boukari Ouoba as recent victims of this crackdown.
“How many Burkinabe journalists do you see saying or writing these things about Burkina Faso being a paradise?” he questioned. “It is only Africans in other countries who believe and promote this propaganda.”
Omokri went on to highlight the irony of how many Africans, especially on social media, believe doctored content from the regime without question, including false claims of an impending U.S. invasion of Burkina Faso.
“They show you a photo of an American General and claim he said he wants to invade Burkina Faso, and you just suspend your rational mind and believe it?” he asked. “Where did the American General say so? Which media carried it? Where is the video?”
In what could be read as a direct challenge to his critics, Omokri repeatedly urged his followers to “please fact-check me.”
He cited Burkina Faso’s bleak security rankings—first on both the 2024 and 2025 Global Terrorism Index—as evidence that the country is far from the stable and prosperous haven Traoré’s supporters portray.
“Rebels control vast swathes of the country,” he claimed, linking the dire situation to Traoré’s “purge” of capable soldiers from the national army—a move he believes has weakened the nation’s defense and triggered frequent coups.
The most scathing part of his post came near the end, where he lamented the blind loyalty of some pan-African supporters and questioned the intellectual rigor of even educated Africans who fall for the propaganda.
“It makes you wonder if those racists who say that to hide something from a Black man, simply put it in writing, are right,” he wrote provocatively.
Omokri closed his post with a final challenge to readers: “Please fact-check me and expose me as a liar, or liberate your mind by doing some cursory research instead of believing everything you see on social media.”
