Despite divergent opinions surrounding the 2023 general elections, a representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday in Lagos rated the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) high in its handling of the last general elections.

Mr. Mathew Alao, UNDP Head of Governance and Security.

The UNDP commended the electoral management body for ticking all the boxes during the electioneering process despite the challenges faced and the high population of the country. Mr. Matthew Alao, the UNDP Nigeria Head of governance and security, who commended INEC for some of the innovations added to the conduct of the 2023 elections said the election was a significant improvement on all the previous elections in Nigeria.

He disagreed with the narrative that the election was a sham because of one or two hitches reminding his audience that the elections into State Houses of Assembly, Governorship and the National Assembly held without much complaints. He spoke at an orientation programme for fact-checkers and other stakeholders preparatory to the launch of the iVerify project in Nigeria. The project is being coordinated and hosted by the International Press Centre.

Prof Ayobami Salami, Lagos INEC REC

In a speech by Professor Ayobami Salami, the Lagos Resident Electoral Commissioner who spoke on behalf of Mr. Sam Olumekun, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, said the iVerify project could not have come at a better time because of the eveils of misinformation, dis information and fake news in the country.

Prof Salami accused social media of being the main source of fake news in Nigeria adding that fake it has led to inaccurate narratives about the general elections and the excellent work of the electoral commission. He identified the negative effects of fake news on the electoral process as aiming at delegitimising the personnel that conduct the elections; delegitimising the institution charged with the conduct of elections and even delegitimising democracy in Nigeria.

According to him, the introduction of technology into the country’s electoral process has changed the outlook of Nigeria’s electioneering process from what it used to be in previous years. But he acknowledged that there could have been some technical difficulties experienced but were never enough to justify outright condemnation of the entire process adding the elections happened in stages.

The UNDP representative criticised the malfeasance image associated with the Electoral Commission despite its efforts to conduct a seamless election which made it possible for the entire country to exercise their right to vote while praising INEC’s performance during the general elections as impressive.

“I feel it inconsiderable when I listen to people saying elections of the 2023 are the worse, that it’s bad and so on, and I feel that what is driving those comments is a lot of misinformation in the social media from persons that didn’t even have an understanding of what transpired during the elections, he said.

“In the whole gamut of electoral process, which we followed closely, we could observe the level of commitment and preparations INEC management and staff put into it, it may sound unfair to say they failed because they experienced glitches while uploading the presidential election results.

“There was a time when results were to be written on sheets of paper, without the counting of votes, there was a time that a ruling party would dictate how many seats they wanted to have and the electoral body would simply comply. But Nigeria has moved far beyond that and things have been improving such that the 2023 elections applied technology to solve problems of accreditation of voters and other electoral matters.

“And because INEC could not upload only one result, the social media went awash with all sorts of misinformation, disinformation and the people that are supposed to know better would go on Television and say all sorts of things, we are only doing Nigeria a great disservice”, he said.

Professor Ayobami Salami, the INEC Lagos Resident Electoral Commissioner, responded to the commendation by highlighting some of the challenges the commission faced during the general elections and how it was able to overcome them.

He added that Nigeria has the second-highest presidential system of government in the world, behind only the United States of Africa, and that the number of Nigerians who voted during the general election was higher than that of voters in all the West African nations adding that despite the challenges and population of the country, INEC maintained credibility and transparency during the general elections.

Noting the negative impact of fake news as a challenge, the REC observed that, despite the electoral commission’s efforts during the polls to ensure free and fair elections, false information created negative narratives in the public about the electoral commission’s efforts.

Mr Lanre Arogundade, the Executive Director of the International Press Centre spoke about the iVerify project platform would help to stem the spread of fake news, disinformation, misinformation and even hate speech in the country. He enlisted other objectives of the platform to include “identifying and fact-checking misleading and harmful contents, and coordinating responses to the dissemination of misleading and harmful content

Under the project, the IPC would facilitate multi-stakeholders engagement and capacity building to strengthen the media literacy and safeguard the integrity of the information landscape”

The IPC, he said will accommodate the Fact-Checking Desk, serving as an independent media resource centre with trained fact-checkers. He said the center would be opened to researchers and citizens who may which to engage in more fact-checking activities.

The iVerify project platform and website would be launched in the federal capital Territory, Abuja, in October.