2027 elections, AI lies: Shettima, Mbah, Onaiyekan challenge Editors on objective reportage

Vice President Kashim Shettima, Enugu State Governor ,Dr Peter Mbah , and former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, have challenged Nigerian editors and journalists on reporting the truth, strengthening fact-checking, investigative reporting and professional ethics ahead of the 2027 general elections.

They stressed the importance of objectivity in reportage, warning that artificial intelligence has made disinformation more convincing, faster and harder to detect.

They spoke on Thursday at the 22nd All Nigeria Editors Conference organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in collaboration with the Enugu state Government at the International Conference Centre,Enugu, with the theme, “The Ballot, The Media and the Task of Keeping Democracy Alive,” and the sub-theme, “When Lies Look Real: Detecting and Debunking AI Disinformation Before, During and After Election.”

The conference which will last for two days brought together editors and other stakeholders to examine the media’s role in protecting democratic processes and public trust.

Shettima, who addressed the conference virtually, said the rapid development of AI had made the responsibility of the media more demanding, as fabricated photographs, videos, voices and other materials could be made to appear genuine.

He urged editors to strengthen professional standards and verification mechanisms to detect and counter AI-generated disinformation before, during and after elections.

The Vice President said government and the media might not always agree, stressing that democratic development required disagreements to be based on facts and handled responsibly.

He also said the reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration were beginning to show improvements in sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas and services, while acknowledging that the ultimate test remained their impact on Nigerians’ cost of living, purchasing power, employment and quality of life.

In his speech, the Governor of Enugu state , Dr Peter Mbah who hosted the conference, told more than 350 editors that government and the press had different responsibilities but were ultimately united by the need to serve the public.

He said while government must be transparent and accountable for its actions, the press must independently establish facts and report the truth.
“Sometimes that truth will expose failure. Sometimes it will reveal progress.”
The governor challenged journalists to “go deeper” through investigative reporting, urging newsrooms to distinguish between stories that merely generate immediate attention and issues the public genuinely needs to know.

According to him, rigorous journalism must not be about finding evidence to support an already-held position or becoming an arena for political grandstanding.
He said journalists should examine evidence, test competing claims and establish what happened, adding that the same standard should apply to government and its critics.

Mbah also warned that AI had raised the stakes because falsehoods could now be produced with the “texture of reality” at extraordinary speed and scale.
He said Enugu Government’s responsibility was to remain transparent and deliver positive change, while the media’s responsibility was to remain independent, scrutinise developments and report findings based on facts.

The governor further highlighted his administration’s development agenda, including road construction and reconstruction, schools, primary healthcare centres, water supply, transport infrastructure and the development of Enugu Air.

He said the state was being positioned as an economic gateway to the Southeast, with an ambition to become one of Nigeria’s leading states in economic output, human development and quality of life.
Onaiyekan: Democracy can die quietly

Delivering the keynote address, former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal Onaiyekan described democracy as a system that requires constant protection rather than one that automatically sustains itself.
He said credible elections depend on citizens having access to reliable information, stressing that the media serves as the mirror through which citizens see and understand the society in which they make political choices.

He warned that when the media becomes distorted, citizens risk making decisions based on falsehood rather than facts.
Onaiyekan described AI-driven disinformation as a major emerging threat, noting that technology can now create fake voices, images and videos capable of portraying people in places where they never were or events that never happened.

He urged journalists to make verification an instinctive part of their work, asking them to pause and establish how they know that information is true before publishing.

The Cardinal identified verification, literacy and courage as key responsibilities for journalists in the AI era.
He said journalists must learn to recognise signs of manipulated content and also educate the public on how to identify AI-generated fakes.

He further challenged journalists to correct falsehoods regardless of who benefits from them, noting that it was easier to expose a lie that favours an opponent than one that supports one’s own side.
Onaiyekan also called for collaboration among newsrooms to track and debunk major falsehoods in real time during elections.

In his speech , the Governor of Jigsaws state, Mallam Umaru noted that the media advance national development and strengthen democracy. He held that the media should provide accurate information during and after every election.

The governor added that the roles of the media go beyond reporting .” The media promote peace and accountability, which are essential in democracy”, he said.

He urged Editors and Journalists to continue to invest verifications , dictate misinformation, noting that the challenge before editors should not be who breaks the news. ” The guild must continue to promote unity and ethical standards,” he said.

In a welcome address, the NGE President, Eze Anaba, said the media had a major responsibility to nurture Nigeria’s democracy by helping ensure that elections were credible and electoral outcomes accepted by citizens.

He said voters could only make meaningful choices when they were adequately informed and had access to credible information. Anaba described editors as critical gatekeepers in an era of social media, AI deepfakes, misinformation and rapid information dissemination.

In his goodwill message, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, represented by the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Ali Mohammed Ali, similarly warned that AI-generated fake photographs, videos, audio recordings and documents posed a serious challenge to democracy and public trust.

He urged editors to make verification an integral part of newsroom culture by establishing who made a claim, assessing the reliability of the source, determining whether images and videos were original and ensuring that evidence supported headlines and reports.

Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC and NCC also delivered goodwill messages.

The conference, chaired by the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, featured discussions on electoral justice, election petitions in the digital age, election security, responsible reporting, journalists’ wellbeing and national development. More than 350 editors and other stakeholders were expected to participate in the two-day gathering. J

Highlights of the event were the unveiling of the NGE book titled, “Truth, Trust and the Future of Nigerian Journalism”, and the presentation of awards of excellence to Governor Mbah and Cardinal Onaiyekan.