By Ishaq Dan-Imam, Lokoja.
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD West Africa), has trained 25 Fact-checkers, called ‘Soldiers of Mouth’ to counter disinformation in November 11 Governorship election in Kogi state, north-central Nigeria.
The CDD Fact-checkers at the 3-day intensive training of the ‘Soldiers of Mouth’ held at Edgedrive Hotel, Lokoja, from 18th to 20th October, 2023, were exposed to the trends in the social media circle.
The training also identified insecurity, information gap, intra and inter-party conflict, partisan inclination of bad actors in the cyber space, religious and ethnic biases of the internet users as the key drivers of disinformation in the social media ecosystem.
The CDD had earlier carried out information assessment in the state to find out the degree of disinformation (Fake News), ahead of the election with a view to countering disinformation during and after the governorship election in Kogi state.
In a message, the Executive Director of CDD West Africa, Idayat Hassan, represented by Mr. Armsfeel Ajanaku, said the CDD West Africa with the support of its partners, was unrelenting in its commitment to fighting disinformation with a view to reducing incidence of fake news, which is a recurrent threat to information integrity in Kogi state particularly in the build up to the forthcoming November 11 off-season elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states.
The CDD executive director said early warning was key to countering the phenomenon of disinformation as she called on stakeholders to ensure early monitoring of fake news.
According to Ms. Hassan, CDD is coordinating the factchecking structure as it has finalized strategies towards disseminating factchecks on Kogi election on various platforms to reduce incidence of fake news.
“Disinformation and the weaponization of fake news in Nigeria, and across the West African sub-region have had serious implications for the credibility of the electoral process. Information disorder is similarly threatening the social fabric of multi-ethnic societies across the African. The threats posed by fake news, misinformation, and disinformation have also affected historically marginalized groups, especially in terms of their participation in the political process.
” Particularly, the plight of women who already face real political participation barriers has been further accentuated by the dangers posed by fake news, misinformation, and disinformation. The gendered dimensions of fake news were on display during the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections, especially in the light of identity-driven violence, which undermined the participation of several groups. Disinformation has been identified as a key driver in some of the reported cases of violence against women participating in the political process, either as voters or candidates. While the problem is not new, the ongoing manifestations are particularly challenging, given the scope of the manipulation, the ease with which information can be shared, the diversity of techniques adopted to do so, and the proliferation of actors — individuals, partisan actors, and influencers at the level of the communities.
Ms. Idayat said the involvement and coordination of electoral stakeholders were important to expanding the base of information gathering, fact-checking, and dissemination of fact-check reports. According to Idayat, CDD in partnership with other fact-checking organizations has set up the Nigeria Fact-checking Coalition (NFC) to provide training to ramp up the skills of key stakeholders including those at the community level, where access to information could be daunting given challenges in information and communication infrastructure.
This she said was the reasoning behind the innovation of the soldiers of mouth in the context of the Nigerian off cycle elections.
The soldiers of mouth role, according to the CDD chief executive, focuses on wide networks of the ‘Soldiers of Mouth’ in local communities to counter all shades of disinformation, especially those forms, which undermine the credibility of the electoral process.
The CDD urged social media companies to take down false contents, and stressed the need for increase in advocacy by stakeholders to stem the tide of ‘cyber stalking’ and called on the stakeholders to increase digital literacy among Nigerians.
The Nigeria Police, a stakeholder in the CDD factchecking strategy, was represented by the police public relations Officer in the state police command, SP William Aya, who expressed concerns on the circulation of fake press releases on the social media with intent to mislead the public. SP Aya, called on social media users in the state to factcheck before sharing information on social media, warning ‘malicious actors’ of disinformation to desist from creating tension especially during the upcoming Governorship election in Kogi State.
The Kogi State Coordinator of CDD, Mr. Ben Reuben Joshua, implored the ‘Soldiers of Mouth’ to wage war against online and Offline disinformation and mutation of data on the social media as they as the soldiers of mouth trained to monitor and debunk claims in the cyber space that could threaten peace in their various Communities in line with the objectives of the training. Mr. Joshua, urged the CDD Factcheckers to approach the assignment with diligence, commitment and vigour as he described the task of the Factcheckers as a self-sacrifice necessary for information integrity in Kogi state and Nigeria, while urging the Factcheckers to ensure timely verification of claims on the conduct of Kogi election as he called on INEC, Police and other election stakeholders to proactive disclosure of information to the public for common good of society.
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