Protocols
It is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to all of you at this press conference, which Food Basket Foundation International (FBFI) has planned as part of plans to protect Nigeria’s online civic space before, during, and after the conduct of the general elections
in 2023.
Food Basket Foundation International (FBFI), a woman-led, indigenous non-profit, non- governmental organization (NGO) in Nigeria, was founded in 1989 with the singular mission of helping low-income families achieve food and nutrition security on a
sustainable basis, particularly for members of vulnerable groups. The FBFI, through the years, has provided interventions and services with the aims of alleviating the effects of poverty, promoting nutritious practices geared toward food systems strengthening, and
providing a means of developing a sustainable livelihood.
The Foundation has continued to work at the grassroots, towards alleviating the effects of poverty on vulnerable populations sustainably; providing nutrition education along with other services and interventions to help towards healthy lifestyles, and acting as a
bridge between those who need assistance and those who can make the requisite changes to the policies that will make nutrition, food security, and sustainable agriculture achievable.
Since 1989, FBFI has coordinated, collaborated with, and strengthened Civil Society Organizations in various areas including advocacy, budget analysis, capacity building, knowledge management, partnership, and research. FBFI was a foundational member of the premier nutrition coalition in Nigeria and produced the first Chair of the Board of Trustees. FBFI has demonstrated experience with leading diverse teams, working collaboratively to develop knowledge products, empowering women and youth, inclusive
legislative engagement, and positively changing public policy.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the Nigerian digital civic space, like any other nation in the globe, is intended to facilitate citizens’ abilities to exercise their rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly, and expression guaranteed by the constitution. This
includes giving and receiving knowledge, beneficial encounters for raising awareness, and educating one another, among other things. In the information age, technology offers a number of avenues for improved global connectedness. Nigeria’s 222-day Twitter ban in 2020 highlighted the threat to constitutional liberties and the possibility of repression in the digital civic sphere. This highlighted the autocratic tendencies of some government figures who preferred to use their authority to stifle the public’s right to free speech.
Without a doubt, the integrity of the 2023 general elections will be significant in determining the future of Nigeria as an indivisible nation. All hands must be on deck to facilitate free, fair, and credible elections. Millions of Nigerians, particularly eligible
voters, get their information online. Therefore, the digital civic space is expected to play a significant role in the decisions that a myriad of Nigerians will take during the presidential elections coming up in February 2023 and the gubernatorial elections in March 2023.
The online civic space in Nigeria is gradually taking shape, as the spread of digital platforms becomes apparent and knowledge of their use for civic activities grows. Opportunities provided by the internet continue to promote implementation among numerous civil society organizations in Nigeria, which use it to organize and engage citizens. Digital technologies have become essential for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to collaborate, create awareness, and mobilize their communities.
The use of current and future legislative instruments poses a significant danger to Nigeria’s online civic space. Governments continue to impose legal and, sometimes, extreme restrictions on civil society in the face of a deteriorating larger political landscape. In addition, the government has used legislation such as the Cybercrime Act of 2015 to threaten and imprison online activists who are actively demanding accountability from the government. In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of legislation to silence young girls and women’s voices, impede civil society actions, and imprison journalists who submit reports critical of the government.
You will agree with me that Nigeria is a nation that has enshrined in its constitution, freedom of expression, assembly, and association, and freedom of information. However, the government has consistently repressed both offline and digital spaces, including the press, from exercising such freedoms of speech and freedom of information. On the flip side, the digital civic space has been misused through the spread of falsehood and (un)intentional misinformation and disinformation.
There are efforts at combating misinformation and disinformation and, still, the efforts have been faced with multiple challenges. Intervention by the state has risked limiting essential freedoms, independent bodies face accusations of bias, while self-regulation
of content by social media platforms, and their users, has proven insufficient to stem the flow of disinformation. Those who see state regulation as a key part of curbing misinformation and disinformation online recognize the need to find a way of doing so without clamping down on vocal citizens who are exercising their right to freedom of expression guaranteed by Section 39 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution. Meanwhile, there were moves by the Nigerian senate to protect and safeguard falsehood and manipulation on the
internet, which provides the Nigerian government the power to unilaterally shut down social media and potentially the internet for posts they deem a risk to public safety or national security.
As the general elections are approaching, the overarching goal of this project is to protect online civic space by combating voter misinformation and disinformation while improving access to accurate civic information inclusively. With the advent of citizen journalism, information circulates quickly. Unfortunately, some individuals, either by omission or commission have distorted information, leading to misinformation, disinformation, and malformation. The misuse and repression of both offline and digital civic spaces, no doubt, have contributed to the perceptions, mostly negative, of members of the international community about Nigeria. On February 21, 2022, the Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, reiterated the government’s commitment to regulating social media usage in Nigeria. This culminated in digital censuring which has fast become a trend in the digital civic space in Nigeria, contributing to further shrinking of the civic space. Still, it is not all gloom and doom. It is worthy of note that a large population, particularly youth, find or enjoy the freedom of expression, assembly, and association in online communities.
Through research, policy analysis, and constructive discussions with the government (regulators) and the corporate sector, the initiative, Safeguarding Digital Civic Space for Electoral Integrity (SDSEI), seeks to defend the digital civic space from all forms of
repression. Key stakeholders have formed a cluster and will collaborate on various project components, which will ultimately lead to success. Recently, as part of the Steering Committee on Civil Society Regulatory Environment in Nigeria, FBFI, in
collaboration with other members, developed the concept of the interactive web platform to help facilitate compliance and self-regulation of CSOs in the country, a project which has been implemented and successfully launched in December 2022 with the support of various partners.
The Safeguarding Online Civic Space (SOCS) group is a loose cluster of mostly youth- led Civil Society Organizations and Business Membership Organizations from diverse areas within the social sector. SOCS is instituted to;
i) Address restrictions on internet freedom.
ii) Improve online information access,
iii) Protect voters from electoral misinformation and disinformation, and
iv) Improve inclusive online information access (Civic and voter education for vulnerable people).
Members of the Safeguarding Online Civic Space (SOCS) Group include:
- Food Basket Foundation International (FBFI)
- SB Morgen Intelligence, Learners Corner (LC)
- Nigeria Network of NGOs (NNNGO)
- Nigeria Numeric (NN)
- African Girl Child Support
- Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN). Noble Missions (NM)
- Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN)
- Equity Concord Girls Initiative (ECGI)
- Spaces for Change (S4C)
- Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) Nigeria
- Enough is Enough (EiE)
- Family Welfare
- Yiaga Africa
- Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI)
- Inclusive Friends Association (IFA)
- TransparencIT
- Centre for Citizens with Disability (CCD)
- Connect for Development
- North West Civil Society Anti-Corruption Network
- North East Civil Society Network
- Social Impact Consulting
- Development Initiative (AGCSDI)
The USAID Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) dialogues series on digital civic space spawned the Safeguard Online Civic Space (SOCS) group. SCALE is a five-year activity that commenced in October 2020. SCALE, implemented
by Palladium, has the mandate to strengthen the financial, management, and advocacy capacity of local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and business membership organizations (BMOs) in Nigeria to create a more accountable, transparent, peaceful, and democratic Nigeria with more effective and efficient public service delivery. The SCALE Activity will strengthen the organizational capacity of Civil Society Organizations and Business Membership Organizations (CSOs/BMOs) as well as their capacity for collaborative advocacy and accountability on priority policy areas that will improve the quality of life for Nigerians.
The Safeguarding Digital Civic Space for Electoral Integrity (SDSEI) project will engage critical stakeholders across government, telecommunications, civil society, and the general public, who have been united by an overarching interest in protecting the online
civic space to maximize the benefits and minimize the threats for proper enlightenment and education of the populace on their civic rights regarding the general elections, irrespective of cultural, religious and political affiliations.
The SDSEI’s objective is to protect online civic space by combating voter misinformation and disinformation while improving access to accurate civic information inclusively. This project will create easily digestible factsheets and train fact-checkers across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria. Part of our strategy is to engage the media, as critical stakeholders, regarding their role in countering misinformation and disinformation by holding press conferences across the six geo-political zones. In addition, we hope to have improved inclusivity in access to the online voter and civic information for vulnerable and marginalized groups, including people living with disabilities (PLWD), women, and youth. To facilitate this, we plan to:
a) Develop relatable skits on voter and civic information in English, Pidgin,
Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba
b) Host live radio shows
c) Create public service announcements on national radio and television
d) Conduct outreaches to higher institutions
e) Generate evidence on the integrity and openness of the online civic space before, during, and after the 2023 elections.
We are asking the media to support us in our efforts to combat voter misinformation and disinformation, improve inclusive voter and civic education and generate evidence regarding the openness and integrity of the digital civic space while tracking the political,
economic environment by giving the project the required publicity so that it gets to every part of the country. We expect that you will offer web links, movie clips, online broadcasts, and reports that will portray the above-mentioned SDSEI objectives. We
look forward to developing a solid partnership with you that will last far beyond the project. We appeal to you to kindly use your platforms to establish a supportive climate where the project’s success determines the electoral landscape’s agenda and serves as
a watchdog for future elections.
As part of our mandate to safeguard the digital civic space, we shall collect, analyze, and report data, as well as create evidence-based policy briefs and advocacy materials, and produce information sheets on protecting online civic space. We will use hashtags to drive home this message on our social media platforms and use for branding.
The hashtags are: ProtectYourVote9ja, YourVoteMatters9ja, NoToFakeNews9ja
These hashtags are not just for a trend that needs to be adopted but rather, are an essential component of our content strategy for this project. They will serve as a resource for monitoring the visibility of the campaign on social media platforms. The use of hashtags will help substantially increase the reach of messages on the project.
In conclusion, the integrity of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria must not be compromised for the betterment of the good people of Nigeria and the legacy of our nation. The digital civic space must be safeguarded to enhance the integrity of the electoral process, especially with the introduction of digital tools. Therefore, we enjoin all and sundry to cooperate with us as we traverse the six geo-political zones of the nation in our quest towards protecting the digital civic space by reducing the impact of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation and repression of rights to information, while simultaneously increasing voter knowledge of constitutional rights and electoral processes.
Thank you for your time.
(Signed)
Funmi Akinyele Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Food Basket Foundation International (FBFI)
