“Disinformation and misinformation have eaten deep into society, journalism” — Busari 

As the 2023 general election in Nigeria is only seventy-eight (78) days away, Nigerians have been urged to be cautious with the information they consume as information disorder increases with a prospective election.

The Editor of Dubawa Nigeria (Nigeria’s first indigenous independent verification and fact-checking project), Kemi Busari, stated this while speaking on the topic “How to cover the election in a digital age” at the Amplify In-depth Media Conference (AIM Conference) held between the 8th and 9th of December 2022.

Mr Busari disclosed that as the poll draws near, there is a spike in the number of false statistics, doctored images, and videos by candidates and their supporters to deceive the electorate. 

The Dubawa Editor maintained that there are opinions disguised as facts and false withdrawal and defection claims. 

He said: “Dubawa is putting out media and information literacy articles, explainers, analyses, fact-checking, live fact-checking, collaboration, and partnership to fight against information disorder.”

He stated that the dearth of information, audience attitude, reach, facebook policy on politicians, non-fact-checkable claims, and aiding of falsehoods by journalists are the major challenges facing fact-checkers in Nigeria. 

He further noted that Dubawa is working towards creating more media and information literacy, more fact-checking, and more online and offline fact-checking to educate the electorate. 

“If a fact checker published five fact checks, there’s more in his draft that he/she doesn’t get information on to fact check. 

“We have published eight types of mis-/disinformation to look for ahead of polls.” 

He shared some fact-checks published by Dubawa, including one which stated that Chinese authorities seized over 7,200 human penises on a cargo ship from Nigeria and more.

The Amplify In-depth Media Conference (AIM Conference) is still ongoing and can be watched online here.