Recently the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, stated that deepfakes, disinformation, and doctored photographs were a critical danger to the national security of Nigeria. Reprented by Maj. Mohammed Abdullahi at the Directorate of Army Public Relations’ joint seminar in Abuja, Oluyede underscored an expedience to which all citizens, policymakers, and journalists must take note, that wars of today are no longer being fought only on the battlefield but also in the realm of information. “Where weapons capture battles,” he said, “truth and trust capture wars.”
With the rise of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, the speed and reach of information — both genuine and false — have multiplied. Fake news, manipulated images, and deepfakes now pose real threats to national cohesion and operational integrity.
That describes a technological and ethical crisis. The emergence of digital technologies and AI has transformed the way information is being created, shared, and consumed. But with it, in the same instant, has accelerated speed and scale of disinformation. What once took hours to spread can now be crafted to spread virally in seconds. Deception through fake news, photo-shopped images, and AI-generated deepfakes can manipulate reality, undermine institutions, and destroy public trust—all with the click of a button to upload.
In a country where news already spreads through politically charged and emotive channels, the deepfakes are an added danger. They are altered, hyper-realistic video, audio, and images that can deceive even the most discerning audience. During election or national crisis, the damage can be monumental, inciting violence, undermining democratic faith, or even election rigging.
The above had earlier been discussed in my earlier article Deepfakes: Looming Crisis for 2027 Election. Therein, I pointed that “Nigeria has a lot of work to do to protect its democracy. We need to do more to teach people how to use technology so that they can find and analyse fake news.”
Continental Discussion
At the Africa Facts Summit 2025 in Dakar, Senegal, such concerns resonated throughout the continent. The summit’s theme—seeding fact-checking into the DNA of journalism, echoed the cries of education and institutional fortitude. Mouminy Camara of CESTI started the day by giving a presentation that went straight to the heart of the matter: the state of journalism education and why fact-checking should be an integral part of the curriculum.
In Nigeria, FactCheckAfrica has developed a comprehensive fact-checking and media and information literacy curriculum for higher education institutions, a curriculum that is balanced and incorporates theory and practice. Its modules include critical information literacy, digital and data literacy, moral and civic sensibility, and the use of artificial intelligence and open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools. This course specifically confronts the anxieties voiced both by the Nigerian military and the Africa fact-checking community: that truth is sacrificed without education and technology.
In the “Disinformation in Times of Crisis” session, African reporters such as Nigeria’s Aliyu Dahiru of HumAngle revealed the price paid by vulnerable communities when falsehoods dominate. Disinformation in conflict areas not only distorts facts, but widens gaps, incites hatred, and prolongs suffering.
This coming together of global trends and domestic reality is nothing short of phenomenal. The war danger, the self-reflection on the part of the press, and the call from the scholarship for a shift in curriculum all point in one direction: the country must build resilience at the site of convergence of information, technology, and civic responsibility. However, fact-checking organizations like FactCheckAfrica is investing in AI-powered verification platforms, youth training programs, and grassroots networks for cooperation to combat the menace.
