MORE than 350 Nigerian editors from both print and electronic media organisations gathered in Enugu State last week for four days to examine the challenges facing the media industry, especially against the backdrop of the 2027 general elections. The gathering was the 22nd All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) 2026, which was put together by the Nigerian Guild of Editors with the theme: ‘The Ballot, The Media, and the Task of Keeping Democracy Alive’.
With the sub-theme ‘When Lies Look Real: Detecting And Debunking AI Disinformation Before, During And After Election’, the conference had in attendance, senior reporters such as Aremo Olusegun Osoba, the former governor of Ogun State, his elder brother and Vanguard Publisher, Pa Sam Amuka Pemu, and ‘the third leg of the trinity’, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu.
Also in attendance were scholars and academics from across the globe, who took turns to dissect the media industry, appraise what we are doing (rightly and wrongly), examine the challenges before us, and offer recommendations as we approach the 2027 general elections.
With just a few months before the poll, the grim reality of the challenges ahead of us was laid bare by one of the speakers, Professor Farooq Kperogi, a journalism teacher at the Kennesaw State University in Georgia, United States of America. Prof. Kperogi spoke on the sub-theme at the conference.
Even before the first ballot is cast, Professor Kperogi cited more than three instances where Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used to alter news and distort political narratives, which has the potential to inflame tensions and undermine public confidence in the entire electoral process. One of the examples he cited was the publication of a fake front page news item attributed to a non-existent newspaper called ‘The Daily Tribune’, which was circulated on social media on September 1, 2026.
In its lead story, the paper falsely claimed that the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, promised ‘free house rent for all Nigerians’ if elected president next year. The headline of the story read ‘Atiku: No Nigerian Will Pay House Rent when I Become President’, along with a fabricated 10-year jail term for any landlord that flouts the order.
In reality, there is no legitimate newspaper in Nigeria named the ‘Daily Tribune’. In fact, the actual established and well-known medium is the Nigerian Tribune published by Vintage Press. However, many Nigerians are gullible and susceptible to these manipulations and don’t take the trouble to verify information and sources, either due to laziness or political mischief, as the fake publication was circulated on several WhatsApp groups.
Another example is another fabricated front page report captioned ‘How I was Cured Of Madness – Peter Obi Anambra’s Gov Gives Testimony In Church’, accompanied by the picture of the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). The story was said to have been published in the PM News Newspaper on July 17, 2006.
Kazeem Ugbodaga, Editor of PM News, later dismissed the story as fake, as it was not an authentic publication of the stable. “The image has been digitally altered, the photograph of the actual subject of the original story replaced with a photograph of Peter Obi, while the original name on the Newspaper’s rider was also replaced with Peter Obi’s name. The manipulation appears designed to make the fabricated material look like an authentic historical edition of the newspaper. The use of the PM News masthead, date and page design does not make the altered material genuine.”
Another fabricated front page news was published recently by the same fake publisher, ‘The Daily Tribune’, with the caption: ‘Fuel Will Sell For N5,000 in May 2027 – Tinubu’ This has been shown to be fake, as it stems from a digitally manipulated image designed to look like the front page of the authentic publication, the Nigerian Tribune.
We are warned that more of these digitally manipulated stories, audios, videos, and pictures will become more widespread in the country as we approach the next elections.
In an environment where millions of Nigerians rely heavily on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and X for political information, the concern is heightened for genuine media practitioners gathered at the Enugu convention. From cloned voices to fake INEC notices, artificial intelligence could turn millions of mobile phone screens into a new battleground for electoral trust, and make no mistake about it – Nigeria’s 2027 elections is shaping up to have a new battlefield dotted with artificial intelligence, deep fake videos, cloned voices, fabricated photographs, and even bogus INEC notices.
Voters and the general public are warned to be more aware, detailed, detached, and resourceful about information verification to avoid falling victim to, and spreading fake news and heating up the polity. The last thing we need now is to be further divided by falsehood, misrepresentation, and propaganda.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has identified AI-driven disinformation, social-media volatility, and foreign information manipulation amongst emerging threats to the election. The danger in spreading the these lies is the speed. A fake video showing an INEC official announcing a change in voting arrangements could reach millions before the Commission responds.
A fabricated result sheet could trigger allegations of, or an attempt at rigging, while a cloned voice could falsely appear to belong to a candidate or an electoral officer.
Candidates are also vulnerable as it has been stated in the examples cited above. AI-generated recordings could falsely depict a politician withdrawing from the race, endorsing an opponent, or making inflammatory statements. Experts have warned of the “liar’s dividend”, when genuine evidence is dismissed as fake because deep fakes have become commonplace. The challenge for INEC, therefore, extends beyond counting votes. It must win the information war quickly enough to remain the most trusted source of election information.
News organisations and political parties face a similar responsibility. Publishing unverified AI-generated material could transform falsehoods into national headlines, while parties that weaponise deep fakes against rivals could eventually become targets themselves. The greatest danger may emerge on election day, when fake messages claiming polling has been suspended, or fabricated images of violence or false results could spread rapidly. Nigeria’s 2027 election may be decided at polling units, but the battle for public trust begins much earlier on millions of mobile phone screens. In fact, it has actually begun.
INEC has acknowledged the growing threat posed by artificial intelligence and disinformation and has taken steps to strengthen its technological capacity. The Commission has approved an Artificial Intelligence Division within its ICT structure with the aim of using technology and data to detect emerging threats and possible electoral manipulation.
For newspaper editors not to fall victim of the threat that lies ahead, he has to be double sure of what he is going to approve for publication in his stable. He or she must question any news item before him and strictly follow the golden rule in the media – when in doubt, leave out – should be respected at all times.
A former Editor at Leadership Newspaper, Ali M. Ali, also shared his experience at the conference while he was editor at the organisation. A news bulletin published by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), during the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was left out of publication because he doubted the authenticity of the report. He said that although he got a query from the publisher, he held on with his doubt, and when he subsequently became the Managing Director of NAN several years later, he discovered that the story got to NAN bulletin from a fake source.
The Obi of Ontsha, Igwe Nnameka Alfred Achebe, who chaired the event agreed that the media industry was going through a transformation, where falsehood could be manufactured by machines in seconds, with a persuasiveness that mimics truth so precisely that even trained eyes struggle to see the difference. Let me quote him: “A voice that sounds exactly like a governor can now say what he never said, while a video can place a candidate where he never was. An image can show violence that never occurred, timed to inflame passions 48 hours to an election, while a fake voice note in Igbo can circulate on a town union WhatsApp group and decide how a community votes.
“This is not distantly hypothetical. It is here, now, in our elections, in our WhatsApp groups, on our timelines. And it is uniquely dangerous for Nigeria because it exploits our greatest strengths: our diversity, our passionate politics, and our deep trust in community and kinship networks as sources of information. It also exploits some of our weaknesses, such as ignorance, poverty, and hopelessness amongst the majority of our population. The same social fabric that has made us resilient can now become the fastest channel for falsehood — because we trust the neighbour, the family group, more than we trust a stranger.” I agree with him totally.
A 13-year-old son of a colleague recently had an audience with a former governor and when he was asked what he would like to become in future, he was categorical when he said that he would love to become a politician. At 13 years of age, he has learnt and seen that the fastest way to wealth in Nigeria is to be a politician. Can I blame him?
Those who could not boast of having N1 million in their account outside public office have turned out stupendously wealthy after just a few years in politics. Those that are in politics are not ready to leave the stage without a fight, and those outside are now desperate to have their fingers on our commonwealth and are ready and willing to do whatever it takes for it.
There will be more desperation as the 2027 general elections approaches and it behooves on editors to be up to their game. News organisations should train and retrain their staff on how to spot fake news and images from afar. They should fact-check any piece of information at their disposal and have all the modern tools for verification. Beyond technology, public awareness of the perils of fake news and the hubris of AI would also be critical.
Nigerian voters should also develop the habit of checking the source(s) of sensational political material before sharing it, particularly when a message appears designed to provoke anger, fear, or ethnic hostility.
Digital literacy campaigns could help citizens recognise common warning signs, including suspicious accounts, manipulated images, unverifiable claims, and videos that appear without an identifiable original source. The 2027 election will present a new kind of electoral contest – one in which the battle for votes is accompanied by a parallel battle over digital reality and the desire by political players to control the narratives.
Artificial intelligence itself is not inherently a threat to democracy. The same technology can assist in election monitoring, information analysis, and the detection of coordinated disinformation if put to good use. The challenge for INEC and other stakeholders will be ensuring that those legitimate uses of AI are not overwhelmed by its misuse. With the election approaching, the question may no longer be whether deep fakes will appear in Nigeria’s political space, but whether electoral institutions and voters can identify and contain them before they influence events on the ground.
At the international level, some of the brains behind AI are now raising the alarm that it could be the end of mankind unless some form of regulations are put in place. But the chief policeman in the world, the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, does not believe so, and has already renamed AI as Super Intelligence (SI). The rat race between US and China can continue. We are all in it together.
The ANEC 2026 was a success, and it is hoped that the lessons learnt would guide our steps going forward as gatekeepers and critical stakeholders in nurturing our democracy.
See you next week.
- Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday.