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By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja

A pro-democracy think tank, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has urged political parties in the country and their respective presidential candidates to focus on issue-based campaigns ahead of the 2023 general election.

It noted that debates that prioritise religious and ethnic division only serve to distract citizens from making informed decisions while voting since such discourses add no value to surmounting the challenges confronting the country’s governance and development.

The organisation’s Executive Director, Idayat Hassan, who said this in a statement titled, ‘CDD calls on political actors to ensure an issues-based political campaign’ also charged parties and candidates to desist from electoral disinformation, misinformation and weaponisation of fake news.

While describing disinformation as a threat to the sustainability of the country’s democracy, she urged the Nigeria Peace Committee and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to institute a fact check hub.

According to her, it will help to monitor the peddling of fake news by political parties, their candidates, and supporters before, during and after the general elections and sanction defaulters of the recently signed Peace Accord appropriately.

Hassan said, “With an estimated 95 million registered voters deciding 1,491 election contests, including a term-limited president, it is important for governance issues affecting citizens to be at the forefront of the political debate.

“CDD urges political parties, candidates and their supporters to focus on the issues affecting the country’s governance and development. These include challenges in the security and economic sectors, and its result impact in other areas of governance, such as education, health, power and agriculture among others.

“CDD notes that the current nature of campaigning is cause for concern. The period has been dominated by a proliferation of electoral disinformation, misinformation and the weaponization of fake news.

“This rising trend poses the biggest threat to the peaceful pre- and post-election conduct of the elections. This is because fake news and disinformation has the potential to further fragment the country and skew the electoral outcome. This could play a part in affecting the legitimacy of the elections and the leaders who emerge from the process.

“We urge all voters, social media users, citizen journalists, and mainstream media executives to always fact check information before sharing. We all share responsibility of curbing fake news, to ensure that we can all reap the dividends of our continued democracy,” she added.