INSIGHT: How disinformation was used to promote political candidates in 2023 elections

During the just-concluded elections, politicians and their supporters used social media to manipulate public opinion, either by deliberately spreading false information or misrepresenting information to suit certain narratives. 

Most times, they either spread fake news about candidates and their parties or manipulate discussions and existing data to earn support and sympathy for their favourites. 

These antics fuel intolerance and cause social division. Most of the disinformation campaign during the 2023 elections in Nigeria was perpetuated by the three leading political parties in the country.

DISINFORMATION PROPAGANDA TO BOOST RATINGS 

A viral post claimed that Ayo Adebanjo, leader of Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-political group, said the Igbos should be allowed to secede if Nigerians do not want an Igbo man to rule the country.

“Nigerians want Peter Obi to be their president by voting for him. If INEC dares to rig the election, Nigerians should protest seriously for international communities to intervene. If you don’t want Igboman to rule Nigeria, then allow them go with Biafra,” reads the quote attributed to Ayo Adebanjo.

The post was shared by one Igbo History on Twitter. It garnered 1.9k likes, 481 comments and was shared 387 times.

This post was amplified by 29 Facebook pages using copy-pasting techniques and sharing the same images. These accounts are part of a network of accounts that share IPOB propaganda and disinformation.                          

On Twitter, this post claim was first shared by an account, @UmuezeokaTV

Findings by TheCable showed that there was no mention of the venue or date where the elder statesman made the remark. No credible news medium in the country also reported the claim.

In the same month, Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party (PDP), claimed that he led the economic management team during the tenure of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Atiku made the claim at a presidential dialogue on the economy, organised by the National Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Lagos.

Atiku was Obasanjo’s vice from 1999 to 2007.

 “As head of the economic management team, while I was vice president, I was instrumental in designing a private sector revival strategy and advocated for the opening of the economy for private sector investments in several sectors. And we made tremendous progress,” the claim reads in part.

Checks by TheCable revealed that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of finance and now director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), led Obasanjo’s economic management team.

The team, comprising 12 experts, was established by Obasanjo in 2003 at the beginning of his second term as president and was responsible for designing and implementing economic reforms under the administration.

A publication on Nigeria’s debt reform, published by the Centre for Africa-Europe Relations said: “When President Obasanjo was re-elected in 2003, he appointed a new economic management team headed by former World Bank director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. This team implemented many policy reforms.”

However, Atiku headed the National Economic Council (NEC), which is not the same as the economic management team, when he was vice president.

Membership of the NEC comprises the VP as chairperson, 36 state governors, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other co-opted government officials.

On January 22, an account named @UzomaPreciousF1(archive) claimed that Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), said every other presidential candidate ignores him whenever they see him, but Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), always greets him.

“Whenever other presidential candidates see me, they will ignore me as nobody because I have no money. Peter Obi always walks to me to greet me anytime he sees me. Even though he is my opponent, I will not deny the fact that he is a humble man. – Omoyele Sowore,” the quote claimed.

The account said Obi’s action shows that he is a humble man.

The post has over 151,000 views, 1,302 retweets, and 5,297 likes. 

This claim was amplified by a network of accounts with 9 Twitter accounts sharing original content and 1443 accounts retweeting the content. Of the 9 accounts, 3 were created in 2022. Though the post by @UzomaPreciousF1 went viral, the claim was first shared by an account named, @Thenewage101 as a reply to a tweet by Reno Omokri. The account, @UzomaPreciousF1, was created in June 2021. The other 9 accounts that shared the original content used copy-pasting techniques to amplify the claim.

However, Sowore denied ever saying that. 

“WeCantContinueLikeThis,” Sowore wrote.

“I never made any utterance(s) attributed to me here by @UzomaPreciousF1 about @PeterObi! 

Another viral post claimed that Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television endorsed Bola Tinubu, president-elect, who was the presidential flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In the post, Okinbaloye allegedly said Nigerian youths will lose if they miss the opportunity of voting for Tinubu.

The post was reportedly shared on an unnamed platform before it made its way to Twitter.

“Vote wisely… It is going to be a colossal loss to Nigerian youths to miss the opportunity of voting for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu! Despite the lies and allegations against him. I have studied the 4 major contestants in this election despite not having the opportunity to interview Tinubu; to me, he has the most sincere will to bring many Nigerians out of abject poverty,” the post reads.

It was allegedly signed by ‘Seun of Channels TV’.

But the post has been denied by Okinbaloye and Channels Television.

On 15 July 2022, 24 Facebook pages used copy-pasting techniques to amplify claims that Evelyn, wife of the late TB Joshua, had thrown her weight behind Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the LP, and promised him eight million votes. These posts had a total of 13,992 interactions on Facebook.

A Youtube video posted by a news platform also made the claim with the headline: “2023 Presidency: Evelyn TB Joshua Promises Peter Obi 8 Million Votes”. The post gathered more than 900 views. 

This claim did not make a significant impact on Twitter, as it had only 6 mentions.

TheCable checked the verified social media platforms of the church and found that on July 15, through its Facebook and Instagram accounts, TB Joshua Ministries published a statement debunking the claim.

“Our attention has been drawn to various social media posts falsely claiming that Pastor Evelyn Joshua has prophesied victory for a certain candidate in the 2023 Nigerian general elections. Please disregard the posts, as no such prophecy was given by Pastor Evelyn Joshua. We also want to remind you that every authentic message from The SCOAN is given only on Emmanuel TV and all our social media handles,” the post said.

TheCable also reached out to Julius Abure, the national chairman of the LP, who said “a lot of people are supporting Peter Obi in different ways and we are not opposing any form of genuine support”. 

In response to the specific claim about the promised eight million votes, Abule said “the Synagogue church has not contacted the party or Peter Obi in any way”.

This article was produced with mentorship from the African Academy for Open Source Investigations (AAOSI), to tackle disinformation that undermines our democracies, as part of an initiative by the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) and Code for Africa (CfA). Visit https://disinfo.africa/ for more information.