The 2023 election cycle saw Nigerian voters overwhelmed with disinformation. Sponsored news blogs, social media accounts, and other mass media spread disinformation at a rate unprecedented in the country’s fragile democracy. Artificial intelligence-generated images and videos, as well as media posts, falsely linked candidates to terrorist groups, ethnocentric dialogues, and other criminal vices in the bid to besmirch their public image and tarnish their political chances. This disinformation was also used to rouse ethno-nationalist and religious sentiments among the voters. Across the major political divides emerged three candidates, who had followings of devout cult-like believers. The ruling party, the All Progressives…
Emmanuel Orakwe
Emmanuel Orakwe
Emmanuel Orakwe is a PhD student and sociology lecturer at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Nigeria. His doctoral thesis focuses on a comparative analysis of indigenous self-help strategies and formal social protection in poverty reduction among widows in isolated rural communities in Nigeria. He holds an MSc degree (sociology of development and social change), and his research deals with themes of power, marginalisation, class inequality, social protection, democratisation and social development.
