An investigation by the BBC global disinformation team has uncovered how Nigerian social media influencers are paid by candidates of political parties to spread false information about their opponents ahead of the 2023 general election.
Some whistle-blowers, while making this known on Wednesday, January 18, said that political parties give out cash, lavish gifts, government contracts and even political appointments to social media influencers for their work during the campaign period.
According to the whistle-blowers, the hired influencers are sometimes given an idea that they should frame in their own words.
At other times, they are given the actual tweets that need to be published at specific times.
They added that these influencers are paid based on the number of followers they have.
The whistle-blowers further noted that payment happens mostly in cash in order to avoid a paper trail.
A politician simply identified as Godiya, stated that, “We’ve paid an influencer up to N20 million for spreading false information about one of our opponents.
“We’ve also given people gifts. While others prefer to hear ‘What do you want to do when we assume power?’ because they’re interested in taking appointments or contracts.
“We use images that may not even be relevant to the story we are trying to spin.
“We can take pictures from East Africa in the 1990s in war zones and attach them to a tweet about how my ethnic group is being killed.
“When people get emotional, they retweet, they like, and it gets traction,” she added.
Similarly, a influencer, with almost 150,000 Facebook followers, said that he is paid by political parties to post completely false stories about political opponents.
He noted that he does not do it openly but rather plants false stories through other micro-influencers he hires.
Similarly, Rabi’u Biyora, a major influencer known for supporting the All Progressives Congress (APC) said that he was “wooed” by an opposition party to stop promoting APC, and give his support to their candidate instead.
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