The National Orientation Agency (NOA) implored Nigerians to absorb and propagate the unity and national interest as well as the peaceful coexistence of the country.
NOA Director General Dr. Garba Abari made the call at a National Fact-Checking Course IV in Abuja.
The Nigerian News Agency reports that the National Fact-Checking Course IV is organized to engage more fact-checkers to help tackle the scourge of fake news, misinformation and disinformation in the country.
Abari said that peaceful coexistence among Nigerians, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliations, is vital to the nation’s social, economic and political progress.
”We must desist from spreading misinformation and disinformation capable of causing confusion, crisis and disunity in the country.
“Fake news, misinformation and disinformation hamper the national cohesion of any nation,” he said.
Abari recalled that in 2021, the agency produced a five-year strategic document aimed at training 37,000 fact-checkers to tackle the threat of hate speech, fake news, misinformation and disinformation in the country.
Also speaking, Dr. Tobi Oluwatola, Acting Managing Director of the Center for the Innovation and Development of Journalism, said training fact-checkers was imperative rather than shutting down social and mainstream media due to fake news.
Oluwatola described freedom of information as the core of democracy, adding that shutting down social and mainstream media due to fake news would hamper the nation’s freedom of information and democracy.
Also contributing was Mr. Ibrahim Boye, Director of Corporate Services, Securities and Exchange Commission, praising NOA for embarking on training fact-checkers in all sectors of the nation’s economy.
This, he said, will go a long way in molding the minds and behaviors of Nigerians to verify any information before acting on it.
Galaxy Backbone’s managing director, Mr. Muhammed Bello, who said information travels widely and quickly, raised concerns about fake emails being sent daily through social media.
Bello, who was represented by Mr. Balarabe Garba, said that those emails from the “Yahoo guys” portrayed the country in a bad image.
He praised NOA for organizing the fact-checking training and said the training would help address false information being spread on social media.
Mr. Austin Aigbe, Senior Program Officer at the Center for Democracy and Development, called for greater collaboration between the public and private sectors to achieve the NOA’s goal of training 37,000 fact-checkers over the next five years.
NAN
