The European Union (EU) and the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) have launched an 18-month project to counter disinformation and strengthen democratic resilience across five northwestern Nigerian states.
The initiative, titled Countering Disinformation and Empowering Democracy in Northwestern Nigeria, targets Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, and Kebbi State in the North-west, and Niger State in the North-central, with officials describing the North-west region as sitting at a dangerous convergence of insecurity, poverty, low literacy, and rapidly spreading online falsehoods.
The project was launched on Tuesday in Sokoto.
Speaking at the launch, Xenia Stoll, political officer at the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said disinformation had evolved well beyond a media challenge into an active instrument of destabilisation.
“Disinformation and information manipulation are not only communications issues. They are used as tactics for destabilising societies and inciting violence and conflict,” she said.
