A communication scholar, Professor Umaru A. Pate, has warned that Nigeria is facing a dangerous surge in what he described as a “high-velocity misinformation environment,” driven by bot networks and generative artificial intelligence.
Pate raised the concern on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the 2nd Faculty of Information and Communication Technology Lecture Series at Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete.
He described the current era as one where truth is increasingly undermined by emotionally driven narratives, noting that objective facts now struggle to influence public opinion in the face of algorithmic amplification and identity-based sentiments.
According to him, the post-truth phenomenon does not imply the absence of truth but rather its systematic erosion through fake news, propaganda and manipulated content.
Professor Pate, who is the immediate past Vice Chancellor, Federal University Kashere, Gombe State, noted that Nigeria’s socio-political realities, including ethnic divisions, low media literacy and widespread social media use, have made the country particularly vulnerable to disinformation.
He said declining trust in traditional media has pushed many citizens towards informal and often unreliable sources such as social media platforms and messaging applications.
Citing available data, Pate explained that a large proportion of Nigerians frequently encounter misinformation, while confidence in conventional media institutions has continued to drop.
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He further highlighted the role of automated bots in shaping public discourse, explaining that such systems are used to generate and amplify politically charged content, manipulate trends and create artificial consensus.
“In many cases, repetition creates acceptance, and falsehood begins to assume the status of truth,” he said.
Pate also warned that the rise of generative artificial intelligence has escalated the crisis by enabling the mass production of highly convincing but false content.
He noted that deepfake videos, cloned voices and fabricated reports can now be produced at minimal cost, making it increasingly difficult for citizens to distinguish between authentic and manipulated information.
“Today, manipulated content can appear so real that even informed citizens struggle to detect falsehood,” he added.
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The scholar stressed that Nigeria and other countries in the Global South face heightened risks due to weak regulatory frameworks, linguistic diversity and heavy reliance on mobile-based social media platforms.
He explained that platforms such as WhatsApp have become dominant sources of news for many Nigerians, creating closed networks where misinformation spreads rapidly without verification.
Pate called for urgent and coordinated action among government, academia, media organisations and technology companies to address the growing threat.
He advocated stronger regulatory measures, increased investment in media literacy and the integration of artificial intelligence and digital verification skills into academic curricula.
“The post-truth condition is not irreversible, but restoring credibility requires collective responsibility, institutional resilience and ethical leadership,” he said.
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