Apart from crises arising from Socio-political and religious misunderstanding, fake news seems to be another major threat to democracy, all over the world.
This was the consensus of organizers and participants at a two day Conference on Misinformation, jointly organized by USAID, the Centre for Democracy and Development, and the National Democratic Institute, in Abuja.
There was a two day Conference that had “How to combat threat of fake news in Democracy in Nigeria” as its theme and while addressing the participants, made up of Media practitioners, electioneering agency among others, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed represented by the Director of Public Relations Service in the Ministry, Mr. Samuel Soul, urged Nigerians to stop promoting fake news.
He lamented that in spite of all efforts to curb fake news before, during and after the 2019 general elections, speculations still emanated in all spheres of the election.
Alhaji Mohammed, promised that the Buhari administration will continue to do its best to ensure all round development across the country. In his speech, the National Deputy Chairman of INEC, Alhaji Aliyu Bello, decried the attitude of some Nigerians who are accessing information on the Social Media platform without efforts to authenticate such.
According to the Officer of Democracy, USAID, Mrs Beatrice Ray, combating disinformation is of great importance as the use of the Social Media has increased to eighty point four percent of the population in four years, while the Chief Technical Adviser on Elections, UNDP, pledged to support INEC through provision of adequate and appropriate information so as to ensure a violent free election in Bayelsa and Kogi States.
Earlier in a welcome speech, Mr. Aubrey Mccutcheon of the National Democratic Institute, called for all hands to be on desk to check fake news.
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