By Ahmad Muhammad Danyaro

As Nigeria moves toward the 2027 general elections, the information environment is becoming more complex—and more dangerous.

The rise of artificial intelligence, deepfakes, coordinated propaganda networks, and politically motivated disinformation tricks means that falsehood can spread faster than ever before.

The recent workshops, organized by Alkalanci (a reputable Hausa focused fact-checking platform ) in Kano and the Sokoto States, highlights a critical truth: fact-checking and media literacy organizations are no longer optional, they are essential pillars of democratic stability.

Although fact-checking is a relatively new concept, the goals of fact-checking have been evident in earlier journalistic ventures, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, and starting with the creation of FactCheck.org in 2003, the number of fact-checkers around the world has more than tripled, increasing from 44 to 149 since the Duke Reporters’ Lab first began counting these projects in 2014 — a 239 percent increase. And many of those fact-checkers in 53 countries are also showing considerable staying power.

Alkalanci, a Hausa fact-checking platform christened “The Arbiter” focuses primarily on fact-checking claims on health, politics, and many other topics in the Hausa language.The platform was established to be fact-checking pictures and videos to enlighten the Hausa readers in Nigeria, Niger Republic, Cameroon, Ghana, and beyond about misleading claims or false pictures and videos.

The Alkalanci Platform has since its debut in 2024 remained a reputable and first Hausa Fact-checking platform, given the widespread use of photo editing software and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create deceptive ‘deepfake’ images and videos.

Suffice it to say that ever since the beginning of its works, the platform has corrected misconceptions and/or false claims that otherwise could have cost the populace dearly. Alkalanci’s works do not stop at correcting social media deepfakes and misinformation, it involves pragmatic efforts to address the menace through every stakeholder.

This is evident in the recent workshop organised by Alkalanci, a Hausa-language fact-checking and media literacy organisation, brought together Islamic clerics and imams in Kano and later in Sokoto to address the growing problem of misinformation on social media. During the Kano session, the Chairman of the Kano State Council of Ulama, Sheikh Ibrahim Khalil, declared that creating and spreading fake news is prohibited in Islam.

Alkalanci’s co-founder and Editor, Alhassan Bala, noted that misleading narratives spread rapidly online and can create division and social tension. And because clerics have strong influence over their communities.

Bala encouraged them to ensure that their sermons and messages are factual, beneficial, and based on verified information.

The editor, a thoroughbred expert in the field, with an international experience, also warned that even respected community leaders can unintentionally spread false information, highlighting the need for critical thinking.

Traditional and media leaders also emphasised the dangers of fake news. The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, represented at the event, urged clerics to always fact-check information before sharing it with their followers. Similarly, Freedom Radio Group Managing Director, Alhaji Abbas Dalhatu stressed the powerful role of social media in shaping public opinion and warned that misinformation can have serious and dangerous consequences.

The outcome of the training opened up the space even more as the critical role of such education was appreciated beyond Kano.

The workshop’s train later proceeded to Sokoto, where clerics learned about modern digital threats such as artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and manipulated videos or audio.

Government officials and experts described misinformation as a potential security risk capable of provoking fear, hatred, and violence. Participants were introduced to basic fact-checking tools and encouraged to question sources and verify digital content before sharing it.

The broader goal of the programme is to build a network of informed religious leaders who can help stop false information and promote peace and truth within their communities.

In previous Nigerian elections, false reports of violence or fake announcements have triggered panic as well as an unquantifiable rumour spreading.

It is against these backdrops that as Nigeria inches closer to the decisive 2027 general elections, coupled with AI-generated content becoming more sophisticated, the risk is even greater. And more than ever before, the need of an “arbiter” to educate and enlight Nigerians about the tricks and complexities of this phenomenon becomes necessary.

Without credible fact-checkers, lies can shape public opinion before truth has a chance to respond.
Elections thrive on informed choices. When voters act on manipulated videos, fake endorsements, or fabricated violence reports, democracy suffers. Fact-checking platforms like Alkalanci investigate viral political claims, debunk fake results and doctored materials, clarify misleading campaign narratives and counter foreign interference and coordinated influence operations.

Nigeria’s social fabric is deeply influenced by religion and ethnicity. A single false message framed around religious identity can inflame tensions rapidly.

As highlighted by Kano and Sokoto States participants, misinformation is not always accidental—it is often deliberate and strategic.

Alkalanci and Fact-checking agencies must continue to strive to identify divisive narratives early, provide verified counter-information, equip community leaders with tools to question digital content and promote responsible information sharing.

By training clerics and grassroots influencers, organizations like Alkalanci strengthens the “first line of defence” against instability.

Artificial intelligence has changed the misinformation landscape.Today, it is possible to create: fake speeches that sound real, altered videos of political candidates, fabricated images of violence and cloned voices of respected leaders. Even educated audiences struggle to detect these manipulations.

Alkalanci and sister Fact-checking agencies come handy as they use forensic tools to analyze digital content, teach reverse image searches and metadata checks, provide public education on AI risks and publish transparent verification processes.

Another instructive move by Alkalanci was its focus on this vast geographical axis, where Hausa language holds sway.

Much misinformation spreads in Hausa-language via WhatsApp groups and informal networks where English focused fact-checks may not reach. Before its advent, such large size of people were in complete darkness of having a verified platform to guide and educate them about these digital falsehoods.

Alkalanci’s focus on Hausa-language verification fills a critical gap. Media literacy must be localized to be effective.

Nigeria’s elections are among the largest democratic exercises in Africa. The scale alone makes them vulnerable to manipulation. With growing social media penetration, expanding AI capabilities, political competition intensifying and foreign actors increasingly active online, the information battlefield will likely be more aggressive than ever. Fact-checking agencies are not just correcting mistakes.They are defending democracy, peace, and social cohesion.

Ahead of the 2027 elections, their work may determine not just who wins—but whether communities remain peaceful, informed, and united. Hence the need for election stakeholders to continue to bolster and support them as they now become a formidable force to be reckoned with.

Truth, especially in election season, is not automatic. It must be protected by all and sundry.

Danyaro is a Media and Communications Specialist at Brand-Age Media Consult and can be reached via: adanyaro202@gmail.com

_How the healthcare reforms of Governor Umar Namadi Danmodi are restoring dignity to the aged while protecting the youngest generation._

By Lamara Garba Azare

In every society, the true character of leadership is revealed not in grand speeches or towering structures, but in how it treats those who can no longer compete in the rush of daily survival. In Jigawa State, a quiet but meaningful transformation is unfolding, one that places dignity, compassion, and human wellbeing at the centre of governance.

Through the J Basic Healthcare Services for Vulnerable Citizens, the administration of Governor Umar Namadi Danmodi has woven a protective safety net around those who often struggle in silence. At the heart of the programme are elderly citizens aged sixty five years and above, men and women whose lives of labour and sacrifice helped build the very communities they now inhabit.

For many elderly citizens, the passage of time often brings not only wisdom but also frailty. The body grows tired, the bones lose their strength, and the cost of maintaining good health begins to rise beyond what many can afford. Years spent cultivating farms, trading in markets, and serving society sometimes end with fragile health and limited financial resources. Yet these are the same men and women who nurtured families, preserved traditions, and sustained the social fabric of their communities.

By guaranteeing free access to healthcare for them, Jigawa State is restoring dignity to ageing. It sends a powerful message that the twilight years of life should not be overshadowed by fear of hospital bills or untreated illness. Instead, they should live with the comforting knowledge that society remembers their contributions and values their presence.

The scale of the initiative reflects both ambition and fairness. A total of 143500 beneficiaries have been enrolled across the state, drawn from all 287 political wards. Each ward accommodates 500 individuals within the programme, ensuring that the benefits reach every corner of the state. Among these beneficiaries are elderly citizens who now have guaranteed access to treatment in primary and secondary healthcare facilities without the burden of financial strain.

This policy goes far beyond the provision of medical services. It represents a redefinition of the relationship between government and the governed. A society that cares for its elderly is one that understands continuity. Elders are not merely older citizens; they are custodians of memory, guardians of tradition, and living bridges between the past and the future. Protecting their wellbeing strengthens the moral foundation upon which communities stand.

Governor Umar Namadi has consistently emphasized that the programme is not an act of charity but a duty of leadership. When elderly citizens receive the healthcare they deserve, families become more stable and communities become stronger. Healthy grandparents remain sources of wisdom and emotional support within households, guiding younger generations with the lessons of experience.

The programme also extends its protective embrace to another vulnerable group, children under the age of five. This thoughtful balance between caring for the oldest and protecting the youngest reflects a deep understanding of social development. Early childhood is a delicate stage of life when illness can shape the course of a child’s future. Access to free healthcare during these formative years can mean the difference between fragile beginnings and healthy growth.

By safeguarding children at the dawn of life while protecting the elderly in their later years, Jigawa State is nurturing the full circle of human existence. It is a reminder that development is not merely about roads and buildings but about the health and wellbeing of people across generations.

The J Basic Healthcare programme was carefully designed to ensure transparency and inclusiveness. Community leaders, civil society organisations, and healthcare workers played key roles in identifying beneficiaries. This grassroots approach not only ensures fairness but also strengthens public confidence in the programme’s implementation.

Beyond this initiative, the state government continues to invest in broader health sector reforms. Primary healthcare centres are being revitalised across communities, new general hospitals are under construction, and specialised services such as free dialysis treatment for renal patients are being provided. Together, these efforts form a comprehensive strategy aimed at improving public health and expanding access to quality medical services.

At a time when rising healthcare costs continue to push many families into poverty, the Jigawa initiative offers a refreshing example of what compassionate governance can achieve. It demonstrates that public policy, when guided by empathy and foresight, can shield vulnerable citizens from hardship while strengthening social stability.

The true impact of the programme will not only appear in official statistics. It will be seen in the elderly farmer who can now manage his blood pressure without worrying about medical bills. It will be felt by the grandmother who visits a clinic without depending entirely on her children for financial assistance. It will be reflected in the laughter of a child whose illness is treated early enough to ensure a healthy future.

These quiet transformations are the building blocks of a healthier society. When the elderly are cared for and children are protected, communities become more resilient and families become more secure. Healthy citizens contribute more productively to society, and productive societies build stronger economies.

Governor Umar Namadi’s approach therefore carries a deeper philosophical meaning. It reminds us that genuine progress is not measured solely by economic statistics or physical infrastructure but by the quality of life enjoyed by ordinary citizens. It shows that leadership guided by compassion can shape policies that preserve dignity while creating opportunity.

In the final analysis, the strength of a society is not measured by the wealth it accumulates but by the care it extends to those who once carried its burdens and those who will inherit its future. By protecting the elderly and nurturing young children, Jigawa State is quietly planting the seeds of a healthier and more humane tomorrow.

Under the watch of a caring leader like Governor Umar Namadi Danmodi, governance takes on a deeper meaning. It becomes not merely the exercise of authority but the practice of service. And when leadership chooses compassion over indifference, it leaves behind something far greater than policy. It leaves behind hope, dignity, and a legacy that generations will remember.

Lamara Garba Azare, a veteran journalist, writes from Kano.

By Sufyan Lawal Kano

The true measure of leadership has never been the grandeur of its proclamations. It has always been the discipline of its follow-through, the unglamorous, daily, often invisible work of converting a compelling vision into institutional reality, of ensuring that the ideas articulated in policy documents and public speeches actually reach the citizens whose lives they are intended to transform. In Kano State today, that work is being done with a consistency and seriousness that deserves far wider recognition than it has so far received. And at the center of that effort, serving as both the strategic intelligence and the public conscience of the Kano First Agenda, stands the Honourable Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs, Comrade Ibrahim Abdullahi Waiya, whose unofficial but deeply earned title, Limamin Kano First, speaks volumes about the nature and significance of his contribution.
The Kano First Initiative, conceived under the leadership of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf as a governing philosophy that places the welfare, dignity, and progress of Kano’s citizens at the irreducible center of every policy decision, represents something genuinely distinctive in the landscape of Nigerian state governance. It is not merely a development agenda in the conventional sense, a list of projects to be completed and targets to be met. It is, at its most ambitious, an attempt to redefine the relationship between government and citizens, to move from a model of governance as service delivery toward a model of governance as shared civic enterprise, one in which citizens are not passive beneficiaries of government attention but active co-owners of the state’s development trajectory. That is a profound ambition, and it requires, to become real, something that infrastructure projects and budget allocations alone cannot provide: a coherent, credible, and consistently communicated philosophy that citizens can understand, trust, and embrace as their own.
It is precisely here that Comrade Waiya’s contribution becomes indispensable. From the moment he assumed office, he brought to the Ministry of Information a clarity of purpose that distinguished his approach from the reactive, image-management orientation that has historically characterized government communication in this country. His mission, as he has articulated it through his public engagements, his institutional reforms, and his personal conduct, has been to build a communication architecture that serves not the government’s convenience but the citizens’ understanding. That is a subtle but enormously consequential distinction, and it is one that has shaped every significant decision he has made since taking office.
Among his earliest and most consequential institutional actions was a systematic engagement with the state’s major government media organizations, including ARTV, Radio Kano, Triumph Publishing Company, and the Kano State Printing Press. These engagements were not ceremonial visits. They were strategic assessments, aimed at understanding the capacity, the constraints, and the potential of the institutions through which government communicates with its citizens, and at beginning the process of revitalizing that machinery so that it could serve its proper democratic function: to inform, to educate, and to create the conditions for genuine public understanding of government policy. A government whose communication infrastructure is weak or dysfunctional cannot build the public trust that effective governance requires, regardless of the quality of its policies. Waiya understood this, and he acted on it.
Equally significant was his investment in human capacity at the grassroots level. The decision to organize training programs for information officers from all forty-four local government areas of Kano State reflected an understanding that strategic communication cannot be confined to the state capital or to the national media. It must penetrate to the ward level, to the market and the mosque and the community meeting, to the spaces where the overwhelming majority of Kano’s citizens actually encounter government and form their judgments about its intentions and its performance. By building a stronger grassroots communication network, Waiya created the infrastructure for the kind of citizen-level engagement that the Kano First philosophy demands but that no amount of press releases or social media content can substitute for.
His engagement with the media profession itself has been another dimension of his work that deserves particular recognition. Recognizing that the quality of public discourse in Kano is inseparable from the quality of its journalism, Waiya has invested consistently in building relationships with journalists, broadcasters, and communication professionals, not to manage their coverage or to cultivate favorable reporting, but to foster the kind of professional standards and development-oriented journalism that a society serious about its own progress requires. His consistent message to media practitioners, that responsible, accurate, and constructive reporting is not merely a professional obligation but a civic contribution, reflects a sophisticated understanding of the media’s role in either deepening or undermining public trust in institutions.
Perhaps the most important philosophical contribution Waiya has made to the Kano First discourse, however, is his insistence that popularizing the agenda is not a political act but a civic duty. This reframing is, in the context of Nigerian political culture, genuinely radical. In a political environment where almost every public initiative is immediately read through a partisan lens, where support for a government programme is routinely interpreted as political allegiance and skepticism as opposition, the assertion that the Kano First Agenda belongs not to the political party or to the Yusuf administration but to the people of Kano is a claim that cuts across the grain of established political behavior. It is also, if it can be made to stick, extraordinarily powerful, because a civic philosophy that transcends partisan boundaries is one that can survive electoral cycles and accumulate the kind of broad, durable public support that transforms individual administrations’ programmes into lasting institutional culture.
The evidence that this reframing is beginning to take hold is visible, if not yet definitive. Citizens across the state are demonstrably more informed about the administration’s policies and the philosophy that underpins them. Public conversations about development are increasingly framed in the language of collective responsibility and civic ownership rather than purely in terms of government performance and political judgment. Community leaders, professional associations, civil society organizations, and youth groups are engaging with the Kano First framework in ways that suggest a growing recognition that the initiative speaks to something real in the shared aspirations of Kano’s people, something that predates the current administration and will, if properly nurtured, outlast it.
None of this diminishes the central role of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, whose personal commitment to the Kano First philosophy provides the political authority and executive backing without which no communication strategy, however brilliant, can translate vision into action. The governor’s record of progress across infrastructure development, education, healthcare, youth empowerment, and social welfare initiatives is the material foundation on which the Kano First narrative is built. Without that foundation, the most skillful communication would eventually ring hollow. With it, skillful communication becomes the bridge between government achievement and public understanding, between what is being done and what citizens know and believe about what is being done. That bridge is what Waiya has been building, patiently, consistently, and with considerable skill, since the first day he took office.
What observers of his ministry most frequently note is not any single achievement but a quality of presence and commitment that is, in Nigerian public life, genuinely unusual. Waiya engages, consistently and seriously, with the full range of stakeholders whose participation the Kano First philosophy requires: journalists and community leaders, professional bodies and civil society organizations, youth groups and traditional institutions, media practitioners and policy analysts. He does not manage these relationships from a distance or through intermediaries. He shows up, he listens, he explains, and he follows through. That combination of intellectual seriousness and personal accessibility is, in the world of governance communication, a rare and valuable combination, and it is one that has earned him a reputation that no amount of political positioning could manufacture.
As Kano State continues to navigate the complex terrain of development, democratic consolidation, and social renewal, the work of the Limamin Kano First remains as urgent as it has ever been. The Kano First Initiative is still in its formative stages. Its ultimate success will depend on the quality of its implementation, the consistency of its leadership, and above all, the willingness of Kano’s citizens to claim it as their own rather than leaving it to government alone. Comrade Ibrahim Abdullahi Waiya has done the foundational work of making that claim possible. He has given the governor’s vision an intellectual architecture, a communication infrastructure, and a civic philosophy robust enough to withstand the pressures of a complex political environment. The rest, as it must always be in a genuine democracy, belongs to the people.
Sufyan Lawal Kano is a public affairs writer and civic commentator based in Kano State.
Contact: sefjamil3@gmail.com