Nigeria is heading toward another election season, and for the first time in its democratic journey, the biggest threat may not come from ballot boxes or voting machines, but from the screens in people’s hands. With the 2027 general elections on the horizon, the European Union has stepped forward with a sobering warning: AI-generated deepfakes, manipulated images, cloned voices, and synthetic videos could mislead millions of Nigerian voters before they ever step into a polling booth. The EU, through its Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria Programme, is urging everyone—electoral institutions, media houses, tech platforms, civil society, and ordinary citizens—to wake up to this new reality. At the same time, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission is not just wringing its hands. INEC is exploring how artificial intelligence might actually become part of the solution, using the same technology to catch errors in election result management by comparing figures typed into its system with what appears on paper result sheets. It is a fascinating paradox: the very tool that could undermine trust in elections is being studied as a way to strengthen that trust. But beneath the technical promises and the alarming warnings lies a deeper concern—whether Nigeria’s democracy can survive an information environment where seeing is no longer believing, and hearing is no longer proof of truth.
The EU’s concern was made public through a statement from Lanre Arogundade, speaking on behalf of the EU-SDGN Programme. He put it plainly: the challenge we face is no longer whether false information can influence an election, because it clearly can. The bigger issue is that artificial intelligence has made it possible to produce convincing images, videos, and audio recordings capable of misleading millions of people within minutes. A fabricated video of a candidate saying something outrageous could go viral before anyone has a chance to verify it. A fake audio clip could spark ethnic tension or panic in a matter of hours. Arogundade asked the question that many in Nigeria’s electoral space are beginning to ask: are the country’s electoral institutions, media organizations, technology platforms, and citizens sufficiently prepared to recognize and respond to these threats? His comments came just ahead of a major national summit scheduled for November 2 and 3, 2026, at the Abuja Continental Hotel. The event, titled “Beyond the Ballot: Safeguarding Electoral Information Integrity in the Age of AI,” is being organized by the International Press Centre and the Centre for Media and Society, in collaboration with DAI and International IDEA, with funding from the European Union. Around 250 participants are expected to attend, including representatives from INEC, media organizations, technology platforms, fact-checking groups, civil society, government institutions, and academia. The summit is designed not just to talk about the dangers of disinformation, but to actually test how institutions respond when misleading content spreads during an election.
One of the most striking features of the summit will be an interactive simulation of an AI-driven electoral disinformation crisis. Participants will be thrown into a scenario where fake content is spreading rapidly during an election, and they will have to figure out how to respond in real time. This is a deliberate shift away from the usual conference format, where speakers deliver presentations and everyone goes home unchanged. Arogundade made it clear that this gathering is not just another conversation about information disorder. It is, in his words, an opportunity to test preparedness, examine institutional responsibilities, and identify practical measures to protect the integrity of electoral information. The goal is simple but profound: to ensure that Nigerians can make electoral decisions based on credible information rather than manipulation, deception, or manufactured narratives. The summit will also examine the responsibilities of digital platforms, the influence of social media content creators, the implications of foreign information manipulation and interference, and the changing role of journalism in an AI-driven environment. Discussion topics will include how to detect manipulated content, how to verify election-related claims, how to communicate accurate information during electoral emergencies, and how to strengthen public resilience against disinformation. There is also a careful balance to strike—protecting electoral information integrity while still safeguarding freedom of expression, media independence, and citizens’ right to information. It is a delicate line, and the summit will likely reveal just how difficult that balance has become.
Meanwhile, INEC is moving ahead with its own artificial intelligence plans. Lawrence Bayode, the commission’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, spoke at the launch of the AI for Elections Programme and Hackathon organized by Rise Networks in Abuja. He explained that INEC is exploring practical uses of AI while putting safeguards in place to ensure responsible deployment. The most important application is in the result management system. Bayode described how the system will work: before any result is transmitted, the technology checks whether the figures entered electronically match the figures on the paper result sheets and scanned copies. If there are discrepancies, the system will not allow the result to be uploaded until the issue is resolved. This is a critical innovation because one of the recurring problems in Nigerian elections has been human error—numbers transposed, figures misread, or results altered accidentally during the collation process. By using AI to cross-check electronic entries against physical records, INEC hopes to minimize those errors and give the public greater confidence in the final numbers. Bayode stressed that the initiative would improve operational efficiency, reduce human mistakes, and ensure that the figures published on INEC’s result portal correspond with what was actually recorded at polling units. But he also offered a word of caution: technology must never undermine electoral security, operational stability, or public trust. Developers, he said, should use publicly available or duly authorized data and should not compromise critical electoral infrastructure. In other words, AI is a tool, not a magic wand, and it must be handled with care.
From the private sector, there is also a growing acknowledgment of both the dangers and the possibilities of AI. Sade Dada, Meta’s Head of Public Policy for Anglophone West Africa, spoke at the same event and highlighted the increasing sophistication of AI-generated content. She noted that it is becoming harder and harder for people to distinguish authentic information from manipulated content. Elections, she said, are decided by voters, and voters make decisions based on what they believe—and what they believe depends on what they can trust. That trust is now under threat from cloned videos and synthetic voices, which can be produced using relatively simple tools and spread on a massive scale. But Dada also pointed out that AI can help fight AI. Meta, for example, now labels AI-generated content and requires advertisers to disclose when they have used AI to significantly alter political advertisements. The company’s technologies are also being used to develop tools that can identify manipulated images and videos. Beyond detection, Dada emphasized the importance of digital literacy and multilingual information services. She highlighted an initiative called GovGuide Nigeria, a partnership between Meta, the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, and Publica AI. GovGuide is an AI-powered chatbot that provides government information in English, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. The idea is that voters can access reliable information about voter registration, polling units, and electoral procedures in languages they actually understand. That may sound simple, but in a country as linguistically diverse as Nigeria, accessible information can be one of the most powerful defenses against disinformation.
The broader push to turn AI from a threat into a solution is being led by programmes like the AI for Elections initiative. The convener, Dr. Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, explained that the project aims to translate all the talk about AI into practical technological solutions for the 2027 elections. The programme builds on Run-Am, an AI-powered application developed to detect misinformation and fact-check content during the 2023 elections. This time around, the initiative will feature a national hackathon, an AI Innovations Development Hub, and a Community of Practice designed to nurture promising solutions beyond just the competition. The focus areas are wide-ranging: access to credible electoral information, election data analysis, inclusive and multilingual civic technology, cybersecurity and resilience, and election observation and citizen accountability. Participants are expected to develop functional solutions—not just ideas or slide presentations. Applications are open to eligible Nigerians aged eighteen and above, and participants can apply individually or in teams of up to four. The application window opened on October 22, 2026, and closes on November 12, 2026. The prize pool is ten million naira, with four million for the overall winner, two and a half million for the runner-up, one and a half million for third place, and four special awards of five hundred thousand naira each. These prizes are significant, but the real reward may be the chance to shape how Nigeria navigates the age of artificial intelligence. As the 2027 elections approach, the country stands at a crossroads. Technology has made it easier than ever to create confusion, spread lies, and manipulate public opinion. But it has also made it possible to detect those lies, to verify information, and to reach voters with accurate, trusted content in their own languages. The question is whether Nigeria’s institutions, media, tech platforms, and citizens will rise to the moment. The warnings are clear, the tools are emerging, and the stakes could not be higher. The hope is that by the time Nigerians go to the polls, they will be able to trust what they see, hear, and read—because in a democracy, that trust is the foundation on which everything else is built.