Presidency Trains 100 Northern Influencers To Counter Fake News

The Office of the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Enlightenment has trained more than 100 social media influencers from across Northern Nigeria to counter fake news and misinformation while promoting public awareness of government policies and programmes.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Public Enlightenment, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, said the workshop, held in Kano on Sunday, was organised to equip participants with the skills required to effectively identify and counter disinformation on digital platforms.

According to him, the training would also expose participants to the achievements of the Tinubu administration to enable them to better enlighten Nigerians on government activities.

“The workshop will equip them with skills on how to counter disinformation and misinformation.

“We see a lot of social media videos, AI-generated pictures and clips designed to create disaffection or misinform the public.

“These skills will help them to use social media more effectively for information dissemination,” Abdulaziz said.

He explained that the workshop also focused on issues that promote national unity and encouraged participants to continue contributing to democratic discourse in a responsible manner.

“These are the areas of focus. That is why we felt it’s important to encourage them and urge them to continue doing what they believe in, because that is democracy.

“Everybody has the right to express his or her opinion on issues and to participate in political or non-political organisations.

“But we see a lot of recklessness in the use of social media. People need to know what the government is doing,” he added.

Earlier, development scholar, Dr. Musa Abdullahi-Sufi, said the training was designed to help change negative narratives about Nigeria by encouraging influencers to highlight development initiatives and national achievements.

He urged participants to prioritise development-focused stories while maintaining high ethical standards in their online engagements.

Abdullahi-Sufi added that the training covered ethical use of social media, fact-checking and responsible digital engagement.