Politics
By Anthony Isibor
PROF. Jibrin Ibrahim, Chairman, Editorial Board of Premium Times and Senior Fellow of Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, has said that the challenges ahead of the 2023 general elections revolve around building capacities to recognise and de-emphasise misinformation and disinformation.
He stated this at the one-day interface by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and Media/CSOS on identifying and mitigating flashpoints of electoral misinformation and disinformation organised by the International Press Centre, IPC, held recently in Abuja.
According to the communiqué signed by Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director, IPC, the interface became necessary against the background of growing public concerns over the issues of insecurity of INEC facilities following recent attacks attracted about 50 media and election stakeholders.
The event, chaired by Prof Ibrahim, discussed other issues of concern, including the deployment of technology relating to preparedness of INEC for the 2023 elections, and the need for engagement with the Election Management Body on imperative of proactive disclosure of information to help to curb the spate of fake news as well as unfounded and unguarded opinionated expressions which lead to misinformation and disinformation and tend to rubbish efforts geared at delivering credible elections in 2023.
Earlier in his opening speech, Prof. Ibrahim noted that democracy is based on the premise that opinions are formed by people to the extent that such opinions inform their choices and decisions which may have far-reaching implications for the society at large.
According to him, the potency of viewpoints of intermediaries like religious leaders as well as tribal and ethnic champions, who may tend to exploit social media to create confusion through misinformation and disinformation.
Prof. Ibrahim added that there is an emerging global tendency to disbelieve facts and act on falsehoods.
He charged the participants to admit the fact that the challenges ahead of the 2023 general elections revolve around building capacities to recognise and de-emphasise misinformation and disinformation with the view to deescalating high-level conflicts which may pose threats to the successful conduct of the 2023 polls.
In the same vein, Arogundade emphasised that the interface was being held “within the context of the need to make appropriate strategic response to the twin-menace so that the worst of information disorder do not envelope the electoral landscape”.
He reiterated the need for the media to provide citizens with appropriate information to enable them make informed choices in the face of enormity of misinformation and disinformation and considering “the penchant for the politicians to tell blatant lies to score cheap political points”.
According to Arogundade, the interface is also aimed at consolidating series of initiatives under EU-SDGN project, which include “fact-checking of claims by politicians under the on-going monitoring of media coverage of 2023 elections, the establishment of a fact-checking unit in IPC’s news portal and media resource – the Nigeria Democratic Report – (www.ndr.org.ng), the empowerment of citizens with the knowledge to detect fake news towards sanitising the electoral information space.”
Similarly, Festus Okoye, National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, of INEC, stressed the need to build confidence and trust amongst stakeholders in the electoral process through collaborative engagements on information management.
He noted that lack of adequate knowledge about the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 is leading to wrong assumptions and therefore the spread of false information and assured of INEC’s preparedness for the 2023 general elections.
Okoye reiterated the commission’s commitment to the provisions of the Electoral Act and the deployment of technology for the elections, including the use of BVAS.
Some of the participants, who spoke during the event, emphasized the need for the media and the CSOs to focus on public enlightenment on relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution as amended as well as the extant Electoral Act, particularly as it relates to the powers vested on INEC to deploy technology.
They also enjoined INEC to remain steadfast in its commitment to transmit election results in real-time as well as to deploy BVAS which has recorded a significant improvement in accreditation and authentication of voters. In light of the challenge of multiple registration and under-age voting, the interface highlighted the need to deepen further collaboration at the state level towards creating awareness on the position of INEC regarding the use of PVCs as the only means of identification on Election Day as well as ongoing steps geared towards cleaning up voters register to enhance the credible outcome of the polls.
They observed that misinformation and disinformation pose threats to the electoral process and popular democratic participation and added that Journalists lack adequate capacity and resources to effectively deliver on their constitutional duty of defending democracy.
The participants called on media establishments and owners to do more on training and enhancing media literacy in an ICT age and deploying appropriate tools to detect misinformation and disinformation.
INEC and other stakeholders were urged to explore the infinite potential of the youths in ICT for them to use their skills in identifying as well as obliterating threats and impediments to the proper dissemination of credible and usable information, among others.
The event was attended by Austin Aigbe, Senior Programme Manager, Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, Ayo Aluko, Director of Voter Education, INEC, Media professionals and representatives of civil society organizations, among others.
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Tags: Anthony Isibor Ayo Aluko INEC Lanre Arogundade PROF. Jibrin Ibrahim
