NOA begins 2nd course on fact-checking for 37,000 Nigerians, wins FOI award

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has commenced Course 2 of Fact-Finding for 37,000 Nigerians across the country.

This is just as the Agency received a 3rd place award for Freedom of Information (FOI), organised by the National FOI Cohorts made up of six organizations.

Speaking at the Fact-Checking Course 2 of NOA Fact-Checking Capacity Building Sessions for 37,000 Nigerians, the Director-General of NOA, Dr Garba Abari said as the 2023 general elections approach, and political sabres rattling gradually dominate the environment, it is expected that NOA will begin to see increased use of vitriolic language, disinformation and misinformation.

He said the course has recorded over 200 participants online and physically during course one.

“As we receive this training, we must be mindful that disinformation, misinformation and fake News, as the name implies, is very often intended to instigate, cause hate, anger and acrimony with the main aim of causing disaffection, division, violence and even war.

“Fake news is outright falsehood; distorted or alternative facts purveyed as authentic news intended to mislead people, cause disaffection, confusion and chaos. Although fake news has been with us over time, the advent of the internet, especially social media, has encouraged its spread like wildfire.

“This is further exacerbated by the use of religious, ethnic and political platforms to promote these negative values.

“Susceptibility to disinformation is usually a product of insufficient analytical thinking, rather than motivated reasoning. In other words, we’re too stuck in automatic System thinking and not enough in analytic system thinking.

“Prevention, not cure, may be a more effective way to combat misinformation and one of the most effective means of prevention is to build people’s capacity to Fact Check”, Dr Abari noted.

In another development, Dr Abari received the 3rd place award on Freedom of Information on behalf of the Agency.

“While receiving the Award, the DG said “my delight not only stems from the fact that this is the highest FOI Act compliance ranking the agency has ever attained but also the testimony it bears to our resilience and commitment to exceptional corporate practices as an Agency.

“From a distant 52nd position in 2017 to 5th position consecutively in 2018 and 2019, we have not relented in improving ourselves with regard to our FOI compliance.

“That was why despite an unfortunate drop to 17th position in 2020, we did not hesitate to learn from the pitfalls that orchestrated that decline, largely traceable to the impact of COVID-19, and pushed harder to assume our rightful place among the best in 2021.”

He said NOA has been championing advocacy for citizens’ exploration of the FOIA provisions.

“The rationale behind the FOIA is to, among others, ensure that there is public participation in governance; the business of governance is open to public scrutiny, laid down procedures in the conduct of public affairs are adhered to; transparency and accountability in governance are institutionalized; corruption is stemmed, and scarce resources are judiciously deployed for the well-being of citizens,” he added.

Dr Abari said the Agency has also translated the FOIA into 23 Nigerian languages including Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Alago, Ibibio, Igala, Tyap, Bachama, Kanuri, Bini, Fulfude, Egon, Urhobo Gbagyi, Efik, Jju, Idoma and others in addition to an explanatory note to the Act called “23 Reasons for the FOIA.”

While presenting the Award to Dr Abari, one of the leaders of the six organizations that organised the award and the Coordinator of Right To Know, Mrs Ene Nwankpa, said this year’s unveiling is very significant, because it marks 10 years since the FOI law was signed in Nigeria.

“The event allows us to look back at the gaps that still exist in the law. We noted that there are a lot of gaps in implementing the law and top of that list remains the lack of political will that we still see across the board within government and Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in implementing the law.

“At this national FOI ranking, out of 213 MDAs in Nigeria that was ranked this year, the NOA came 3rd. For us it is very impressive and it is a significant shift because NOA came 17th last year, so to move from 17th to 3rd is very impressive,” she noted.

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