A 2023 pre-election survey by Afrobarometer, a pan-African research network, found that 70 per cent of respondents in Nigeria said they want a democracy. But little more than one in four registered voters in the country exercised their right to vote in last year’s presidential election. This examination of the presence and role of false information before, during and after the contest is the first in a series of stories that raises pointed questions about the election’s legitimacy, as well as the current status and future trajectory of democracy in Africa’s most populous nation, ARINZE CHIJIOKE, SHEHU OLAYINKA and SODEEQ ATANDA report.
On February 11, 2023, 14 days before Nigeria’s presidential election, former aviation minister Femi Fani-Kayode wrote a tweet that appeared to question whether the country was about to experience another coup d’etat attempt.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
