Artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes and other forms of manipulated digital content could make it increasingly difficult for Nigerians to distinguish authentic political information from fabricated material ahead of the 2027 general elections, a cybersecurity and artificial intelligence governance expert, Toluwani Akinniyi, has warned.

Akinniyi said the challenge went beyond the spread of political misinformation to the ability of voters to determine whether images, videos and audio recordings encountered during the election period were genuine.

According to her, advances in generative artificial intelligence have made it easier to produce convincing images, clone voices, manipulate videos and create synthetic content at a speed and scale that previously required considerable technical expertise and resources.

“For Nigeria, this presents a serious concern ahead of the 2027 general elections,” Akinniyi said.

Nigeria has witnessed political misinformation and manipulated digital content during previous election cycles. In the 2015 presidential election, Cambridge Analytica was reported to have been involved in a campaign supporting then-President Goodluck Jonathan, with subsequent investigations documenting the use of divisive material to influence perceptions of his major challenger, Muhammadu Buhari.

By the 2023 elections, social media had further accelerated the spread of political misinformation, including false election results, coordinated accounts and manipulated content designed to create misleading impressions of political support.

Akinniyi cited a doctored video involving Hollywood actors Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey as an example of how digital manipulation could be used in political campaigns.

The video purportedly showed the actors endorsing Peter Obi, but AFP Fact Check traced the footage to genuine WIRED interviews and found that the original material had been edited to insert a political message.

She noted that although the incident was not an AI-generated deepfake, it demonstrated that political manipulation of digital content predated the widespread availability of generative AI.

“What has changed is the technology available to carry it out,” Akinniyi said, adding that generative AI could make manipulation faster, cheaper, more accessible and easier to reproduce at scale.

There are already indications that AI-generated political content is emerging within Nigeria’s information environment.

In January 2026, former Oyo State First Lady, Florence Ajimobi, denied a viral video purportedly showing her making controversial comments about the 2027 governorship election. Her office said a forensic review identified the footage as AI-generated, including manipulated lip movements and cloned voice patterns.

Similarly, during the June 2026 Ekiti governorship election, CDD Fact Check identified an AI-generated image falsely presented as showing voters waiting to sell their votes.

According to Akinniyi, the incidents do not necessarily mean the 2027 elections will be overwhelmed by AI-generated content, but they indicate that synthetic political material is already finding its way into Nigeria’s electoral information environment.

She said the greater concern could arise from the combination of synthetic content, targeted distribution, coordinated amplification and an already highly contested political environment.

A fabricated video of a political candidate, for instance, could be accompanied by false headlines, AI-generated images and coordinated social media posts before being amplified by influencers and circulated through private messaging groups.

Akinniyi also warned about what is known as the “liar’s dividend”, whereby the growing prevalence of synthetic media makes it easier for individuals to dismiss genuine evidence as fake.

A politician genuinely recorded making a controversial statement could, for instance, claim that the recording was AI-generated, while authentic photographs or audio recordings could similarly be dismissed as manipulated.

“The danger, therefore, extends beyond the creation of false information. It is the possibility of gradually eroding confidence in authentic information as well,” she said.

The expert said AI-enabled political manipulation also raised data governance concerns, particularly as political campaigns increasingly rely on demographic, behavioural, location and preference data to segment voters and tailor political messages.

In April 2026, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission and the Independent National Electoral Commission established a joint working group to strengthen data protection and privacy within the electoral system.

The NDPC said INEC held the personal data of approximately 94 million Nigerians and stressed the need for responsible data processing by political parties, civil society organisations, third parties and vendors.

Akinniyi said election governance should therefore consider not only whether political content was generated by AI, but also the data used to target such content, how audiences were selected and who should be accountable for the resulting influence.

She, however, noted that technology could also be deployed to protect the electoral process.

Ahead of the 2023 election, Full Fact’s AI-supported tools helped fact-checking organisations identify and review claims on a much larger scale. Poynter reported that the tools increased the number of claims that could be identified and reviewed from about 100 per day to as many as 100,000.

Akinniyi said similar capabilities would become increasingly important ahead of 2027, noting that fact-checkers could not manually monitor every social media platform, video, audio recording and messaging group during an election.

She stressed, however, that human verification would remain essential, particularly given Nigeria’s linguistic and cultural diversity.

Akinniyi called for a broader election information-integrity framework involving INEC, the NDPC, political parties, technology platforms, media organisations, fact-checkers and relevant security agencies.

She urged political parties to establish clear rules on AI-generated political content and impersonation, while calling on INEC to strengthen mechanisms for identifying and correcting false information purporting to come from the electoral commission.

She also urged the NDPC to extend data protection oversight into political campaigning, particularly voter profiling, third-party data and targeted political advertising.

According to her, technology platforms should develop effective local response mechanisms for election-related synthetic media, while media organisations should strengthen procedures for verifying digital content before publication.

She added that voters also had a role to play by questioning the source of political content, seeking independent confirmation and verifying claims before sharing them.

Akinniyi said Nigeria still had time to prepare for the risks associated with AI-generated political content before the 2027 election enters its most intense stage.

“Protecting an election is no longer only about securing the ballot box, voting technology or transmission system. It also requires protecting the information environment in which voters make decisions,” she said.