African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Climate
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • Think African [Podcast]
    • #EndSARS
    • Into Africa [Podcast]
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Africa Science Focus [Podcast]
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Climate
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • Think African [Podcast]
    • #EndSARS
    • Into Africa [Podcast]
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Africa Science Focus [Podcast]
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
NigeriaPolitics
Home›African Arguments›Country›West›Nigeria›How fake news spreads, sowing distrust ahead of Nigeria’s elections

How fake news spreads, sowing distrust ahead of Nigeria’s elections

By Idayat Hassan
January 31, 2019
7202
0
Examples of fake news around Nigeria's 2019 election.

From party officials’ half-truths, to wild conspiracy theories, to fabricated news articles, fake news has spread far and wide. 

Nigeria fake news: Examples of fake news around Nigeria's 2019 election.

Examples of fake news around Nigeria’s 2019 election.

Fake news is not new to Nigeria. In the 2015 elections, for example, a 55-minute documentary full of falsehoods entitled “The Real Buhari” aired on television before doing the rounds on social media. In 2017, Biafra separatists attempting to disrupt the Anambra governorship vote claimed the army was injecting school students with monkey pox to depopulate the South East, leading some schools to close and parents to withdraw their children in panic.

This phenomenon has reached new heights, however, ahead of Nigeria’s 2019 elections. As the campaign has heated up, fake news about both President Muhammadu Buhari and his main opponent former vice-president Atiku Abubakar has swirled on Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter. It has been shared knowingly by canny campaign officials as well as unwittingly by thousands of unsuspecting voters.

This false information covers many topics and takes different forms. On the subtler end of the scale, there are examples such as Buhari’s aide saying that Atiku only avoided arrest on his US visit because of diplomatic immunity; or the opposition official posting news that “800 companies shut down” even though the story pre-dated Buhari’s term. On the wilder end of the scale, there are the claims that President Buhari has been replaced with a Sudanese clone; or that Kim Jong Un wants to re-colonise Nigeria.

There is also much in between and, together, these stories have spread far and wide. Many have taken on lives of their own. This has created an ever-more uncertain and heightened atmosphere ahead of Nigeria’s high-stakes elections.

[Nigeria 2019: The issues and electoral maths that will decide the race]

How fake news works in Nigeria

False information in Nigeria spreads through various channels, but social media provide the cheapest and quickest ways to access millions. Through Whatsapp and Facebook, people share propaganda videos, made-up quotes, and fabricated articles made to look like they are from the likes of the BBC or Al-Jazeera. Meanwhile on Twitter, bots and trolls working for both Buhari and Atiku’s camps amplify false stories and contribute to the polarisation of the discourse through bullying and intimidation.

Disinformation also operates offline. Mainstream television and radio stations, for example, frequently host “political consultants” – or Sojojin Baci (“soldiers of the mouth”) as they are known in the North – who further spread half-truths and manipulations in favour of their candidates. Often online and offline routes work together. A rumour that begins on social media may be taken up by the Sojojin Baci through more traditional media, who can add nuance to the story in a way that allows it to resonate with a new audience.

More examples of fake news in which stories have been fabricated to look like they are from mainstream news sources.

More examples of fake news in which stories have been fabricated to look like they are from mainstream news sources.

The effects of disinformation

It is perhaps too early to assess the impact of all this fake information on Nigeria’s 2019 elections. But earlier instances of false stories spreading may be instructive.

During the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014, for example, a story circulated claiming that a local leader in Kogi state had called on all members of the Igala people to bathe in salt water to avoid infection. The false report was first disseminated on Whatsapp and by phone. Then, it was picked up by radio and television stations. Soon, the notion that bathing in salt water protects against Ebola had spread well beyond the Igala people and Kogi state. Hundreds of miles away in Plateau state, for instance, at least two people died and another two were hospitalised after excessively consuming salt and bitter kola believing it would defend them against the Ebola.

At the moment, the single most widely-disseminated piece of fake news is the claim that President Buhari has been replaced with a Sudanese clone named Jubril. The allegation was first presented in a YouTube video made by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in September 2017. The assertion was widely repeated over the following months, though most observers dismissed it as a joke. However, as the election has approached, it has become apparent that several segments of society genuinely believe the false rumour. It has become so serious that President Buhari felt to need to confront it directly in December 2018 both through a press release and by publicly insisting “It’s the real me, I assure you”.

The fact that such an outrageous rumour can reach these levels of dissemination and be believed widely speaks to the potential and dangers of fake news.

The aim of fake news

Disinformation campaigns are run for a variety of purposes. In an election season, they are typically geared towards garnering more votes, dividing the electorate, or suppressing votes for one’s rivals.

[From Boko to Biafra: How insecurity will affect Nigeria’s elections]

An example of this latter strategy may be visible in the emergence of a faceless group calling itself the Fulani Nationalist Movement (FUNAM). It is unclear who is really behind it, but the group is fuelling ethnic and religious tensions through hate messages. It is calling on people to boycott the upcoming elections and to look forward instead to a time when Muslims will rule forever.

Fake news is a huge concern ahead of the Nigerian elections and shows no signs of letting up or being tackled. This is worrying as disinformation is provoking animosity along religious, ethnic and regional divides which are often already tense. It is increasing distrust in both specific candidates and the process as a whole.

[Don’t just vote. Mobilise. (Aka Why elections won’t change Nigeria)]

Previous Article

Insiders Insight: The decoloniser nobody was waiting ...

Next Article

The African Model: Asia’s path may not ...

mm

Idayat Hassan

Idayat Hassan is director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), an Abuja-based policy advocacy and research organization with focus on deepening democracy and development in West Africa.

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Politics

    Guy Scott and the “˜Caribbeanization’ of Zambia – Consequences for Zimbabwe? — by Brooks Marmon

  • Fuel being sold on the streets of Bamenda, Cameroon. Credit: Mbom Sixtus.
    CameroonEconomy

    Smuggling in fuel to fill demand in one of Africa’s biggest oil-producers

  • Beautiful GameCultureSociety

    Photo essay: We are all goal diggers

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter


  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • We’ve already breached most of the Earth’s limits. How can we get back?
  • Africa’s topsy-turvy food paradox
  • Zambia: The president’s five-point plan to stay in power at all costs
  • The two defining challenges facing South Africa
  • ‘Don’t Agonize, Organize!’ Remembering Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem’s Advocacy on Sudan

Editor’s Picks

CameroonClimateEditor's Picks

The climate crisis tinderbox in northern Cameroon

Amid growing resource scarcities, dozens have died and tens of thousands have been displaced by fighting triggered by a cow drowning. Last August, two struggling communities in the remote area ...
  • #EndSARS: Not just a name or statistic. The tragedy of Rinji Bala

    By Zainab Onuh-Yahaya
    November 5, 2020
  • Nigeria LGBTQ. Uzor. Credit: Ikenna Ogbenta.

    Duped through dating apps: Queer love in the time of homophobia

    By Caleb Okereke
    March 26, 2019
  • Sudan constitution. Friday service at the Hamed al-Nil tomb in Omdurman, Sudan. Credit: Carsten ten Brink.

    Sudan’s misguided fixation with finding a transformative constitution

    By Aida Abbashar
    October 5, 2022
  • A member of MONUSCO, one of the forces in the eastern DRC where the M23 is operating, clears Unexploded Ordnance (UXO). Credit: UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti.

    The return of M23: Is there a way out for the DRC?

    By Stephanie Wolters
    November 1, 2022

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.