The Independent National Electoral Commission has warned that the growing use of artificial intelligence to create and spread disinformation could undermine the credibility of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, said electoral technology and communication could no longer be treated as separate aspects of election management, urging stakeholders to strengthen public trust and counter false information ahead of the polls.
Amupitan spoke on Wednesday in Abuja in a keynote address delivered on his behalf by an INEC National Commissioner, Sani Adam, SAN, at the 13th Annual International Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria.
The conference was themed, “Media, Technology and Elections in Africa: Navigating Digital Disruption and the New Dynamics of Electoral Communication.”
According to a statement signed by INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, Amupitan said the credibility of elections increasingly depended not only on the integrity of the ballot, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and result sheets, but also on whether voters understood and trusted information about the electoral process.
He said the deployment of BVAS and the INEC Result Viewing Portal was designed to address longstanding concerns about electoral transparency by allowing citizens to view polling-unit results before their movement to collation centres.
However, Amupitan acknowledged that the 2023 general elections demonstrated how electoral technology could become a source of public distrust when systems failed to perform as expected.
He said electoral legitimacy could only be strengthened when systems operated reliably, voters understood how they worked and authorities communicated openly when problems occurred.
The INEC chairman expressed particular concern over the growing use of generative AI to produce synthetic audio, videos and images capable of misleading voters.
He said the technology had made manipulated content cheaper to produce and increasingly difficult to detect, adding that fabricated political content had already featured in recent electoral cycles in West and East Africa.
Amupitan said the threat went beyond fabricated content to algorithmic microtargeting, which could enable political actors to send different or contradictory messages to narrowly defined groups of voters.
“The danger lies not only in outright fabrication but also in algorithmic microtargeting, which allows conflicting messages to reach narrow segments of the electorate without a shared factual foundation,” he said.
He warned that manipulated content could spread to millions of social media users before fact-checkers or electoral authorities had an opportunity to verify it.
To address emerging challenges, Amupitan outlined a five-point strategy that includes integrating technology and communication planning, establishing a rapid-response mechanism to counter falsehoods within the same news cycle, proactively communicating known vulnerabilities and safeguards, strengthening collaboration with media scholars, fact-checkers and technology platforms, and investing in public media literacy.
He said INEC could no longer afford to treat technology and communication as separate components of election management.
Meanwhile, Amupitan disclosed that the commission was conducting a comprehensive audit of its electoral technology systems ahead of the 2027 elections.
The audit will examine areas including system redundancy, penetration testing and disaster recovery plans.
He also disclosed that INEC was considering a mock presidential election to test its preparedness under conditions similar to election day.
According to him, the exercise would test voter accreditation, result transmission and result viewing systems before the 2027 polls.
Amupitan said INEC had proposed a substantial budget for technology and election operations, including new accreditation devices to replace those lost or damaged during the last electoral cycle.
He said the commission was awaiting the full release of the funds, while its ICT team had begun engagements with manufacturers. Preparations for the technology audit and proposed mock election were also continuing alongside the budget process.
The INEC chairman called for sustained collaboration among the commission, media professionals, technology experts, scholars, fact-checkers and other stakeholders to strengthen public understanding and trust in the electoral process.
He said early preparation would be critical to ensuring that technological advances strengthened rather than weakened the credibility of the 2027 elections.