The controversy sorrounding the date of birth of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress has taken a new turn as Wikipedia editors were forced to lock his profile page for what they term “persistent vandalism”.
It will be recalled that Tinubu celebrated his 69th birthday on March 29, 2021, and as it is his tradition, a colloquium was hosted to mark the day.
However, many Nigerians believe he is older, and there have been numerous reports in the media that the former Lagos Governor is much older than he claims. No one has been able to conclusively prove otherwise.
As the age controversy went on, multiple Wikipedia accounts went online to edit Tinubu’s age from 69 to 79, and back to 69.
As the matter continued to trend particularly on the Twitter app, many attempts were made to correct the “error” on Wikipedia, leading to multiple conflicting edits.
Following these multiple attempts to change Tinubu’s age on Wikipedia, some top editors working with the web platform stepped in to lock the page and make it impossible for the public to edit.
One of the editors said the reason for blocking edit from Tinubu’s page is “persistent vandalism”.
Vandalism is not new to Wikipedia; many accounts have been vandalised over the years, leading the platform to have a dedicated page on what vandalism on Wikipedia entails and how it can be controlled.
Vandalism for Wikipedia is “editing (or other behavior) deliberately intended to obstruct or defeat the project’s purpose”.
Officially, Tinubu’s age is known to be 69, and so it will remain until proven otherwise.
