As Nigeria enters another election cycle spearheaded by a familiar trio of presidential candidates, fake newspaper front pages circulating on social media are muddying the waters with false claims of free housing, weekly food rations and higher petrol prices. This time around, artificial intelligence (AI) is helping these election hoaxes to proliferate.
The country's presidential election is slated for January 16, 2027, with incumbent President Bola Tinubu, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi, leader of the youth-backed "Obidient Movement", among the leading contenders.
Campaigns officially began on August 19, 2026, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) election timetable, with candidates courting voters across different platforms (archived here).
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Politicians' comments and activities are dominating conversations online, and increasingly, so is disinformation.
A recurring tactic seen in past election cycles is the circulation of fabricated newspaper front pages, including several mimicking the Nigerian Tribune, published by African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc.
However, all these pages have been generated with AI tools.
One image published on X purports to show the front page of "The Daily Tribune" newspaper.
"Atiku: No Nigerian will pay house rent when I become President," reads the headline.
Shared more than 500 times, the page features a photo of Abubakar as the main image.
The image was shared on ...
In a 2017 piece in The New York Times, voting expert Ari Berman wrote, “The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed tactics that prevented blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups from voting. But fo...