Here is the story of an election-year problem that no one can afford to ignore. As Nigeria prepares for a crucial round of national elections, a new kind of shadow has fallen over the democratic process—one made of artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and synthetic voices. In a country where information travels fast through WhatsApp groups, radio broadcasts, and social media, the Engage Empower Educate Initiative has stepped forward with a campaign designed to protect voters from AI-generated disinformation. The initiative, known as “Peace by Design: Responsible AI for Peace in Africa,” is built on a simple but urgent premise: if people cannot tell what is real and what is fake, then the entire foundation of an informed electorate begins to crack. The group’s flagship campaign, “Verify Before You Share,” is not just about fact-checking. It is about creating a culture of pause and reflection among everyday Nigerians, especially those who may not think of themselves as targets of digital manipulation. The campaign aims to reach people in the places they already trust—through local-language content, community radio, and digital literacy workshops—so that when a deeply fake video or a cloned voice appears online, voters have the tools to stop, think, and verify before hitting that forward button.
The threat is not abstract, and it is not far off in the future. With generative AI now freely available, anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection can create convincing false content in minutes. A fabricated video of a political candidate saying something damaging, a manipulated audio recording designed to spark ethnic or religious tension, or a viral image that appears to show election malpractice—these are no longer science fiction. They are the new currency of political manipulation. Belema Meshack-Hart, founder of the Engage Empower Educate Initiative, put it plainly: “We built Peace by Design because we saw the danger before it became a crisis. A fabricated video of a candidate can spread across WhatsApp in minutes and shape how millions of people vote, or whether they trust the result at all.” That last point matters deeply. It is not only about which candidate wins or loses. It is about whether the public believes the outcome is legitimate. In a nation as diverse and dynamic as Nigeria, where elections already test the fabric of unity, the introduction of AI-driven disinformation raises the stakes in ways that traditional propaganda never could. It targets trust itself, and once trust is broken, it is incredibly difficult to rebuild.
What makes the “Verify Before You Share” campaign different is its focus on the human side of technology. It does not simply lecture people about the dangers of AI. Instead, it gives them practical, relatable tools to navigate a world where seeing is no longer believing. The campaign will train a network of Digital Peace Ambassadors who understand their communities, their languages, and their concerns. These ambassadors will work alongside a rapid-response fact-checking desk designed to identify election-related disinformation and stop it from gaining traction. But the real heart of the campaign is outreach. Through radio programs, town hall meetings, and content produced in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and Pidgin, the initiative is meeting people where they are. It is one thing to tell a market trader in Lagos or a farmer in Kaduna that AI-generated content exists. It is another to show them how to spot it, question it, and choose not to share it. The campaign recognizes that many people do not have a background in technology, but they do have instincts, life experience, and a deep desire to protect their communities from being used. The goal is to turn those instincts into a protective layer across the country.
The responsibility, however, cannot fall entirely on individual citizens. The initiative is also calling on technology platforms operating in Nigeria to step up and take real action. This means introducing clearer labelling for AI-generated content, speeding up the removal of manipulated election-related material, and strengthening content moderation in local languages. It is not enough for a platform to have a policy against deepfakes if the policy is only enforced in English, or if it takes days to review a complaint that goes viral in minutes. Ezinne Okoro, who led a workshop on AI and peace communication in Africa at the International Peace Summit 2.0, was blunt about the urgency. “What we heard in that room made clear this isn’t a future risk; it’s happening now,” she said. Her message is one that resonates beyond conference halls: communities need practical tools today, not promises for tomorrow. They need to know how to check the source of an image, how to look for inconsistencies in a video, and how to ask basic questions before accepting what they see. And they need the companies that build these tools to remember that their algorithms are not neutral. They are shaping reality in ways that can either protect democracy or undermine it.
Another critical piece of the puzzle is political accountability. The Peace by Design initiative is urging political parties and candidates to publicly commit to not using deepfakes in their campaigns. This is not a symbolic gesture. It is a way of drawing a line in the sand and asking those who seek public office to respect the intelligence of the voters. In previous election cycles, we have seen how disinformation can fuel suspicion, provoke violence, and deepen divisions. If political leaders refuse to disavow AI manipulation, they send a dangerous message that anything is acceptable in the pursuit of power. By asking for these commitments, the initiative is not just protecting the integrity of the 2023 election cycle or the next one—it is helping to establish a norm that should apply to every election in the digital age. It is a recognition that technology will only become more powerful, and that the rules of the game need to be set now, before the next crisis arrives. The window for action is narrow. Once deepfakes become even more sophisticated and harder to detect, the line between truth and falsehood will become almost impossible to draw.
The origins of this effort trace back to the International Peace Summit 2.0, organized by the Engage Empower Educate Initiative. It was there that the seeds of Peace by Design were planted, in conversations between civil society leaders, communication experts, and ordinary citizens who understood that peace is not just the absence of war, but the presence of trust. Now the initiative is seeking to expand its coalition, inviting technology companies, international AI developers, fact-checking organizations, and funders to join the cause. This is not a problem that any single group can solve alone. It requires a broad alliance of people who are committed to the simple idea that voters deserve the truth. It requires investment in digital literacy, in local media, and in community networks. And it requires a willingness to accept that the same technology that can create a convincing fake video can also be used to educate, connect, and empower. The choice is not whether we live with AI. The choice is how we use it. In the coming weeks and months, as Nigeria heads to the polls, the “Verify Before You Share” campaign will be tested in real time. But its message is for everyone, everywhere: in an age of artificial intelligence, the most human thing we can do is to stop, question, and seek the truth. Because in the end, it is not just an election that is at stake. It is the ability of ordinary people to look at a screen and know what is real. And that is a fight worth having, one share at a time.