The Kaduna State Government has backed stronger regulation of social media to curb misinformation and reduce conflict escalation, as a new peacebuilding report identified youths, digital platforms and competing narratives as major drivers of insecurity in the North.
- +Kaduna moves against fake news
The State Commissioner for Information and Culture, Malam Ahmed Maiyaki, stated this during the dissemination of findings from the Delimi Prosper Project held at the Gusau Institute in Kaduna, Arewa PUNCH reports.
The State Commissioner for Information and Culture, Malam Ahmed Maiyaki, stated this during the dissemination of findings from the Delimi Prosper Project held at the Gusau Institute in Kaduna, Arewa PUNCH reports.
The project was implemented under the Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRING) initiative, supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The one-day event brought together government officials, civil society actors and development partners to review findings from the eight-month intervention.
Maiyaki said the report reinforced the importance of evidence-based peacebuilding and warned that digital platforms were increasingly becoming catalysts for misinformation and conflict escalation.
“We are quite glad with the report that we have seen, which is evidence-based because addressing conflict and building peace requires evidence and not assumptions,” he said.
“You do not entrench peace, institutionalise peace or build peace without evidence of what has been done.”
He expressed concern over what he described as the growing misuse of social media in fuelling tensions, saying government would intensify efforts to address misinformation and disinformation.
The commissioner stressed that while social media remained an important tool for information dissemination, it must not be allowed to become a platform for incitement or falsehoods.
Maiyaki also restated the state government’s position in support of stronger regulation of digital platforms, arguing that freedom of expression must be balanced with responsibility.
Hey said, “Our greatest concern remains one of the outcomes of the report, which has shown digital media as one of the enablers of escalation of conflict. My ministry is quite worried about this.
“Social media is an important component of information dissemination and media engagement, but it should not be used negatively to spread falsehoods or inflame tensions.
“Even in advanced democracies such as the United States, social media platforms are regulated. We cannot, in the name of freedom, allow people to abuse these platforms to instigate conflict or misinform the public.”
He added that the government would continue to provide timely and accurate information while working to counter fake news that could trigger unrest.
“There are laws in the country that prohibit the amplification of fake news. Government will not sit idle and watch conflict merchants use these platforms to misinform the public or instigate people against one another,” he said.
Also speaking, a development practitioner and Executive Director of Engaging Borders Strategy, Research and Development, Richard Ali, said the Delimi Prosper Project found that young people remain central to the dynamics of conflict in Northern Nigeria and must be prioritised in peacebuilding strategies.
He said the eight-month project, which ran from August 2025 to March 2026, examined drivers of insecurity and pathways to sustainable peace across parts of the North-West and North-Central regions.
“The key finding is that young people are at the centre of these conflicts that we see in Northern Nigeria. If we are going to address these conflicts effectively, then we must do so with young people at the centre,” Ali said.
He warned that the digital environment has become a major theatre for conflict narratives, making it impossible to ignore its influence on security outcomes.
“The digital space is no longer just something that you consider. The digital space is the actual terrain itself, and it must be confronted as such,” he said.
He said the project produced nine recommendations, with the most important being stronger collaboration among governments, development partners, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.
“If we all work together, then we will be able to simultaneously deal with these issues rather than addressing them in a piecemeal manner that perpetuates cycles of conflict and violence,” he said
