These, as they are saying, are uncommon instances in Nigeria. Politics is within the air, and the actors are devising means each straight and crooked to achieve benefit. In spite of everything, all is honest that appear honest within the sport of energy. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the one whose flip it was to mount the saddle as Nigeria’s president in accordance with his well-known “Emi lokan” diatribe of 2022, is within the final lap of his first tenure.
The nation is looking for his alternative or reelection, because the case could also be. This civic train is coming concurrently together with the election of nationwide and state meeting members in all 774 native authorities areas. As well as, governorship elections can be performed in 28 out of 36 states of the federation. Kogi leads the pack of the remaining eight states the place off cycle governorship polls are performed because of judicial pronouncements on earlier workouts in these states.
After all, the Unbiased Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC) stays an ubiquitous umpire in all of the polls, through which at least 80 million Nigerians have registered to vote. Because the nation wobbles in direction of the January/February 2027 dateline, all eyes are on the apex electoral arbiter because it goes concerning the herculean and quiet, complicated responsibility of organising the utopian free and honest election. INEC and its management have come beneath the gaze of binocular lenses scanning for proof of bias in its actions.
An instance. Not just a few folks have made a mince meat of the newly appointed INEC Chairman Prof Joash Ojo Amupitan due to obvious strikes to derecognise the African Democratic Congress (ADC) citing management disaster within the celebration. Because the matter and related ones inside different opposition political events, notably the Peoples Democratic Social gathering (PDP) and Labour Social gathering (LP) are earlier than the Supreme Courtroom, the very best temple of justice within the land, I’ll chorus from additional feedback to stave off the cost of judicial prejudice. What’s extra worrisome is the latest hyperlink of Amupitan’s title with a clearly partisan line utilizing digital instruments.
Certainly, in an period the place notion typically travels quicker than fact, the rising sample of digital impersonation as a political device ought to alarm anybody who values institutional credibility.
The latest try to smear the integrity of Amupitan is a textbook instance of how misinformation is being weaponized to erode public belief.
Particulars of the contrivance will make Amupitan’s prototype within the Hebrew Scripture, Joash, the Abiezrite, whose son, Gideon dismantled the altar of Baal, squinch within the sepulchre (Judges 6: 25-26).
On the centre of this marketing campaign is a fabricated social media narrative. Hirelings suspected to be linked to opposition pursuits allegedly created a faux Twitter (X) account within the chairman’s title—even though he doesn’t function any such account. By way of this impersonation, they circulated a declare that he responded “Victory is certain” to a put up by @dayo isteal in 2023, implying partisan alignment with President Tinubu.
However even a cursory have a look at the main points exposes the deception. A fast examine.
The supposed reply is timestamped 13 minutes earlier than the unique put up it was responding to—an apparent impossibility that underscores the contrived nature of the declare. The unique put up with ID: 1637111200159879170 by @dayoosrael was printed at 4.18pm Nigerian time, whereas what was speculated to be a reply to it allegedly by Amupitan was posted at 4.05pm which carried the automated timestamp on all X posts, that means {that a} reply put up got here 13 minutes sooner than the unique put up it was responding to. This isn’t simply sloppy propaganda; it’s a deliberate try to control public opinion by digital forgery.
Such ways are harmful. They shift political contestation away from concepts and efficiency into the murky territory of character assassination. Extra importantly, they aim the credibility of electoral establishments—pillars that should stay above partisan battles if democracy is to operate.
If left unchecked, this pattern dangers normalizing a tradition the place anybody could be digitally cloned, misrepresented, and discredited with little consequence. The actual casualty, past any particular person, is public belief.
INEC has met the usual threshold for belief constructing and institutional integrity by commissioning an impartial forensic investigation to unravel the identification of the creator of the phantom X account. Fortunately, the findings of the investigation revealed the INEC boss doesn’t have and has by no means had an X account after investigators queried the web archive’s information, Method again machine’s screenshots of public X profiles and posts with no single archived report seen.. No linkage was additionally established between the faux X account and Prof. Amupitan’s cellphone quantity, yahoo tackle, and account quantity which the impersonator tried desperately in useless to hyperlink by the X account and password restoration reset.
Fearing they’d been discovered, the impersonators shortly renamed the X deal with to @sunnyvibe00 on April 10, 2026, the day the screenshot of the faux put up went viral. The account was additionally set to “personal” and labelled parody account. The present occupant of the account, Coy Emerald, who legitimately reclaimed his account, has disclaimed any affiliation with the unique account or it’s prior person.
INEC ought to submit report of the forensic investigation to the safety forces for additional motion and diligent investigation to uncover the impersonators and produce them to justice. That is the best way to go as a deterrent measure towards digital impersonation and forgery. Any factor much less will quantity to treating criminality with child gloves.
Political actors and their brokers should recognise that undermining electoral management by disinformation might yield short-term good points, but it surely weakens the very system that ensures democratic legitimacy. And for residents, the lesson is evident: skepticism should be utilized not simply to official narratives, however to viral outrage as effectively.
Fact, in right now’s info ecosystem, wants vigilance. For the safety of our democratic area, all fingers should be on deck. The time to begin is now.