NGO Seeks Collaboration Against Voter’s Disinformation

A Non-Govermental Organisation (NGO), Food Basket Foundation International (FBFI), has called for media support to tackle voters’ misinformation, disinformation and spread of fake news as the 2023 general election approaches.
The FBFI Chief Executive Officer, Dr Funmi Akinyele, made the call at a news conference in Ibadan recently.
The Tide source  reports that the initiative “Safeguarding Digital Civic Space for Electoral Integrity (SDSEI)”, seeks to defend the digital civic space from all forms of repression.
It was further learnt that FBFI, a woman-led indigenous NGO, was founded in 1989 with a mission of helping low-income families to achieve food and nutrition security on sustainable basis.
Akinyele said the organisation took the decision to curb the menace of misinformation and fake news before, during, and after the 2023 general elections.
According to her, as efforts are being made at combating misinformation and disinformation, the efforts have been faced with multiple challenges.
“Intervention by the state has risked limiting essential freedoms with independent bodies facing accusation of bias, while self-regulation of content by social media platforms and their users have proven insufficient to stem the flow of disinformation”,she said.
The FBFI Chief Executive Officer said the project was part of efforts to also safeguard the digital civic space for electoral integrity, before, during and after the 2023 general elections.
She said FBFI had concluded plans to train and deploy about 108 fact- checkers across the country ahead of the elections.
“This project will create easily digestible fact sheets and train fact-checkers across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria.
“In the spirit of transparency, 108 fact checkers will be trained.Three persons between the ages of 18 and 50 in each of the states; these people will ensure that contents are done correctly; everything will be done online. We are very much interested in journalists,” she said.