Abstract

This briefing assesses the disinformation environment ahead of the November 8, 2025, governorship election in Anambra State. Drawing on stakeholder interviews, field observations, and targeted engagements across all three senatorial districts, it finds that electoral risk in Anambra is no longer driven by physical security concerns alone, but also by organised information manipulation.

The report identifies seven prominent strands of disinformation: narratives attacking security agencies as partisan; religious framing that exploits Anglican–Catholic tensions; the strategic use of prominent political endorsements (especially around Peter Obi); insecurity panic linked to “unknown gunmen”; mistranslation and weaponisation of Igbo-language campaign messages; claims that INEC is unprepared or compromised; and gendered attacks on women in politics.

These narratives feed three core risks: growing voter apathy (“the result is already fixed”), deepening community polarisation along religious and local identity lines, and a high potential for post-election dispute and violence.

The assessment also exposes critical preparedness gaps. Public institutions such as NOA, security agencies, and even INEC face deep trust deficits and do not yet have coordinated anti-disinformation response mechanisms. Journalists, civil society groups, student leaders, traditional authorities, religious actors, and youth influencers are active in information circulation but lack tools for verification, rapid debunking, or structured response. Women are particularly targeted through smear campaigns, blackmail, and reputational attacks that aim to push them out of political participation, despite growing female representation in state governance.

The briefing concludes that safeguarding the Anambra election will require more than physical security and logistics. It calls for proactive communication from INEC; community-level counter-messaging using trusted intermediaries; coordinated monitoring of false narratives; accountability for political actors who knowingly deploy disinformation; and intentional protection of women and other at-risk groups. Without these measures, information disorder threatens not only turnout and credibility in Anambra, but broader public confidence in Nigeria’s democratic process.