By Patrick Egwu
Journalists from FactCheckHub, CDD Fact-check, Dubawa and Cable Check explained what they learnt from the process.
MISINFORMATION played a key role earlier this year during Nigeria’s 2023 general elections. The election cycle, held between February and March, ended with the victory of candidate Bola Tinubu, who was inaugurated in May 2023.
In the run-up to the elections, activists and politicians used social media to disseminate misinformation to millions of followers. Photos, videos and text messages were doctored and shared massively on WhatsApp, and this became a conduit for false narratives and fake news.
Election cycles are always a tough period in Nigeria, and this one was made even tougher by the cacophony of the digital public sphere. But trolls and activists were not alone on the internet. Fact-checking teams across different newsrooms worked hard to debunk false claims and had a meaningful impact on public discourse.
These fact-checking teams worked with the Nigeria Fact-checkers’ Coalition (NFC), an alliance of 12 fact-checking news and research organisations, including CDD Fact-check, Dubawa, FactCheckHub, Cable Check, RoundCheck, Africa Check among others who verify statements from politicians and false narratives being shared online.
The coalition is not funded by any donor. However, three members (Africa Check, FactCheckHub and Dubawa) self-funded the activities and projects of the coalition.
I spoke to these five Nigerian fact-checking...
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