Nigeria Election Sparks Wave of Misinformation Across Social Media Platforms

Nigerian Election Plagued by Misinformation Wave as Vote Approaches

Since November, Felix Oyewole has watched his social media feeds transform into battlegrounds of political content ahead of Nigeria’s presidential and parliamentary elections on February 25. The 23-year-old Lagos student now struggles to distinguish fact from fiction.

“I think this trend is crazy,” said Oyewole, a first-time voter. “Sometimes I just laugh really, they are desensitizing people.”

Across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and WhatsApp, misinformation campaigns have targeted various candidates. Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential frontrunner, has been falsely accused of paying church groups for speaking opportunities and linked to the separatist Independent People of Biafra (IPOB). Meanwhile, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) faces unfounded claims challenging his academic credentials.

Experts warn this flood of fake news represents a strategic weaponization of social media by political operatives. “Misinformation and disinformation are plaguing this election,” said Idayat Hassan, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD). “The real motive is either to delegitimize other candidates or to suppress and garner votes.”

The scale of these operations was revealed in a January BBC investigation that uncovered how politicians secretly paid social media influencers up to 20 million Nigerian naira ($43,000) to spread disinformation about opponents. Some influencers were promised government contracts or political appointments in exchange for their services.

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has also voiced concerns as it faces accusations of bias from various political factions. “Purveyors of fake news are not relenting in their malicious efforts to put the commission in a bad light,” said Olusegun Agbaje, INEC’s resident commissioner in Lagos.

While misinformation has historically shadowed Nigerian politics – including the 2019 conspiracy theory claiming President Muhammadu Buhari had died and been replaced by a Sudanese body double – observers note a troubling evolution in tactics this election cycle.

“Even the media, who are supposed to give authentic information, have also fallen for misinformation and had to retract the information,” noted Veronica Igube, a legal and governance analyst at Lagos-based research firm SBM Intelligence.

Odanga Madung, senior researcher on elections at the Mozilla Foundation, told Al Jazeera that these patterns align with trends seen across African democracies, including Kenya’s 2022 election. “A majority of political campaigns are actually an effort at information control, and many politicians recognize that the way voters interact with the information they put out is what leads to them winning on the ballot table or not.”

The situation reflects a perfect storm of socioeconomic factors. With more than half of Nigerians unemployed but two-thirds having internet access, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission, cash-for-posts schemes present lucrative opportunities. Additionally, young people eager for political change sometimes unwittingly amplify false information.

“Young people who want a change at all cost are ready to go at any length even if it involves peddling fake news,” Hassan explained. “People have also taken this to be a job, like a normal 9-5 job. Altogether, it makes misinformation much more insidious.”

Experts also point to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter as exacerbating the problem. “He has fired the majority of the people who are working on content moderation on the platform,” Madung said. “So there is no local context by which they are going to begin fact-checking information.”

In response to these challenges, several organizations have mobilized to combat misinformation. FactCheck Elections, an Ilorin-based nonprofit, has deployed 50 trained volunteers across Nigeria’s 36 states. “Misinformation is a pandemic in itself and we are hard at work to make sure it does not mar the electoral process,” said founder Olasupo Abideen.

CDD has conducted workshops for over 400 journalists, bloggers and election officials, equipping them with digital tools to counter false information. They’ve also established a “social media war room” for fact-checking and monitoring problematic accounts.

Meta, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp, has faced criticism for inadequate controls, particularly on WhatsApp where misinformation spreads rapidly among older users. Adaora Ikenze, Meta’s head of public policy for Anglophone West Africa, said the company is collaborating with fact-checkers and INEC to remove misleading content and make political ads more transparent.

With elections just days away, voters like Oyewole remain uncertain. “It is really affecting my choice now because I was really sure of who I wanted to vote for but I am confused now,” he said. “Hopefully, I will make a good choice before election day.”