The Honourable Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola will deliver the conference keynote address as experts, policymakers, academia and other stakeholders from West Africa convene on the 17th and 18th of November to review and interrogate the mechanics of how communication crisis threatens the internal stability of states, institutions and critical national assets.
The conference, organised by the Dubawa’s Information Disorder West Africa Conference. The conference is part of Dubawa’s ongoing #WeekForTruth campaign, set to hold from the 15th to 20th November 2021.
The conference, organised by DUBAWA, the West African verification and rating platform, is an attempt to tackle the information disorder phenomenon as it affects different aspects of society and governance and to showcase the research outcomes of Dubawa’s sub-regional Research Fellowship which has been running for the past 6 months.
The conference will feature high-level panels with distinguished participants such as the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, the Country Director, Amnesty International and many other dignitaries.
Speaking about the timing and imperative of the conference, Mr Adedeji Adekunle, Programme Director of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism [PTCIJ], said “the resilience of democratic accountability and the ability of governments, institutions and citizens to forge a common bond on good governance and the integrity of democracy in our sub-region will depend largely on how we perceive and respond to the current threats of information disorder.”
By the end of the conference, we expect that plausible solutions and ideas which will alleviate the negative effects of information disorder on governance, human rights, elections, healthcare and other aspects of societal living will be developed and shared. The West African scope of the conference will also redefine our problem-solving approach, utilising our commonalities and unique perspectives across the sub-region.
DUBAWA is a non-partisan verification and rating platform designed to help renew West African journalism and democracy through the promotion of a culture of fact-checking and factual public debate. DUBAWA adheres strictly to the principles of the International Fact-checking Network (IFCN), to which it is a signatory. It currently has offices in Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierra Leone with footprints in Liberia and The Gambia as well. DUBAWA is a project of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), a West African centre for journalism innovation and development.
