Nigeria’s electoral chief the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has warned that elections can be undermined long before first ballot is cast, citing weaponisation of Artificial Intelligence and Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI).
Amupitan stated this on Monday in Abuja at the opening session of the National Summit on Electoral Information Integrity organised by the International Press Centre (IPC) and funded by EU Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EUSDGN).
The summit, themed “Beyond the Ballot: AI, FIMI, and the Integrity of Nigeria’s 2027 Elections,” was held at Continental Hotel, Abuja, weeks ahead of 2027 general elections scheduled for January 16, 2027, for Presidential and National Assembly polls.
He said summit was so crucial that he rescheduled South-South leg of zonal readiness assessment in Port Harcourt to attend.
“INEC views this summit, supported under EU-SDGN III framework, not just as conference, but as critical defense council for integrity of our democratic process,” he said.
Amupitan said for decades, election managers focused on physical and operational vulnerabilities like securing paper ballots and logistics, but terrain has fundamentally shifted.
“Today, elections can be undermined long before first ballot is cast. Threat is no longer limited to physical interference such as violent ballot snatching at polling unit, it takes shape within digital networks through synthetic media, automated misinformation, deepfake fabrications, digital micro-targeting, and FIMI,” he said.
He said public awareness alone is no longer adequate defence against synthetic content.
“What Nigeria urgently requires is trusted, coordinated, and rights-respecting operational ecosystem through which public authorities, security bodies, independent fact-checkers, media networks, and platform operators can collectively anticipate emerging threats, verify evidence, escalate incidents without delay, communicate authoritatively, and institutionalise post-event lessons,” he said.
Speaking on AI and FIMI threat landscape, Amupitan said AI is not inherently enemy of democracy, as it helps in deduplicating voter registries and logistics, but the democratisation of generative AI has lowered barrier for malicious actors.
He said capabilities like high-fidelity voice cloning of public figures, hyper-realistic video synthesis of election officials making false announcements, or automated bot networks simulating organic outrage are now accessible at negligible cost.
He listed vulnerable windows to include pre-election operations with fake operational directives and forged registration portals; campaign and eve-of-election windows where deepfake audio or video can be timed to exploit moments when verification channels are constrained; and collation and result announcement with synthetic audio falsely announcing declared results.
He cited 2023 Slovak Parliamentary Election, where AI-generated audio purporting to capture a political party leader discussing vote-buying went viral two days before polls during mandatory 48-hour blackout period, paralysing institutional verification.
“This case proves that public awareness alone cannot counter well-funded, hyper-targeted digital manipulation. Protecting our polls requires rapid-response escalation protocols,” he said.
On INEC’s readiness, Amupitan said commission is prioritising voter education moving beyond “how to vote” to “how to verify,” technological safeguards to withstand FIMI, real-time response to debunk viral misinformation within minutes, and partnering with global platforms. He said INEC already has MoU with TikTok.
He warned against relying entirely on reactive debunking, saying when manipulated video achieves viral saturation within 30 minutes, formal rebuttal three hours later struggles to undo damage.
“While technology evolves at speed of light, truth often travels at speed of trust. Challenge is not just fake news itself, but Liar’s Dividend, where mere existence of AI makes voters doubtful of what is actually true,” he said.
Amupitan said INEC cannot police truth alone and called for united front for information integrity involving platform operators with fast-track escalation pathways, telecoms providers and media to broadcast verified alerts, fact-checkers with direct access to INEC desks, and security agencies to distinguish protected expression from digital crimes.
“To the Media: Be first line of verification. Speed is important, but accuracy is currency of democracy. To Civil Society: Help us bridge digital literacy gap in rural communities where AI manipulation can be most damaging. To Technology Partners: We need tools that can detect and flag harmful synthetic content specific to Nigerian linguistic and social context,” he said.
He stressed that threat of AI manipulation must never become pretext for state overreach, censorship, or suppression of dissent.
“Free press, robust civil society critique, and open public debate are lifeblood of constitutional democracy. Measures aimed at curbing FIMI must remain strictly rights-respecting, transparent, proportionate, and subject to legal accountability,” he said.
Amupitan said summit must deliver clear inter-agency escalation protocols, institutionalised fact-checking desks with real-time communications channels between INEC and fact-checkers, and simulation and crisis stress-testing through tabletop exercises.
“Integrity of ballot in 2027 depends not only on physical security of polling unit, but on authenticity of information environment in which voters make their decisions,” he said, thanking European Union, IPC, Centre for Media and Society, CEMESO, and DAI for organising the summit.
