By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Preparatory to Nigeria’s general elections, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) intervention, in collaboration with Palladium, through it’s Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) Project have engaged civil society organisations and the media working in the Northeast with a view to checkmating the spread of misinformation in the region.
The engagement, held at Chartwell Hotel Conference Hall Bauchi recently, brought relevant stakeholders in a brainstorming session aimed at devising strategies to effectively mitigate the tide of the spread of misinformation and disinformation in the public domain at a time when Nigerians head to the polls to elect their leaders.
Speaking on behalf of the Chief of Party SCALE Project at the end of a two-day Zonal Dialogue Series, Nnenna Nkata explained the dialogue proposed workable ideas to address the scourge of misinformation in the Northeast in the context of upcoming elections.
She said that resolutions reached at the end of the two-day dialogue will be pursued vigorously to alter the narrative.
“The USAID Nigeria SCALE Project, implemented by Palladium supports the efforts of CSOs and BMOs to influence the development of and implementation of key democratic reforms at local, state and national levels to improve the managerial and advocacy technical capacity of CSOs to drive policy change and greater public accountability.
“SCALE facilitates civic space dialogues with civil society organisations, relevant government institutions and the private sector to inform the structure and focus of our civic space, better understand strategic stakeholders’ perspectives and address free civic space barriers unique to Nigeria’s diverse political and socio-cultural landscapes,” said SCALE chief of party.
Speaking on the side with our correspondent, Sulaiman Muhammad Umar, a participant from Maiduguri said the two-day engagement has impacted his skills to handle divergent advocacy issues critical to socio-economic and political realities prevalent in the northeast at the moment.
Also speaking, Dr. Furera Adamu Garba of Department of Languages and Linguistics, Sa’adu Zungur University Gadau said the discussions around misinformation and disinformation are apt and timely, especially at a time when the country heads to the poll next month.
She said the exercise will go a long way in tackling the menace of misinformation in not only the northeast but the country as a whole.