Deepfake: why Nigeria needs a ‘Microsoft Partnership’ before the 2027 elections

The British government has made a bold move in the global war against AI-powered deepfakes by announcing a partnership with Microsoft experts. Through this collaboration, the country will be building a digital shield, a system designed to spot deepfake material and set standards for tackling deceptive AI-generated content. 

This is coming barely hours after UNICEF called on governments to criminalise AI-generated child abuse material, as its new research, the Disrupting Harm project, in conjunction with ECPAT and INTERPOL, estimates 1.2 million children had images manipulated into sexual deepfakes across 11 surveyed countries in 2025 alone.

This partnership is the first of its kind state-level response to a rapidly evolving threat. But thousands of miles away, in Africa’s most populous nation, the response to similar threats is less about systemic defence and more about chaotic damage control.

The stark contrast in preparedness was thrown into sharp relief this week by a viral video involving Adams Oshiomhole, the sitting Senator representing Edo North in the nation’s Red Chamber.

The footage, which circulated rapidly across social media platforms, appeared to show the former governor giving a foot massage to a lady believed to be a South African adult content creator aboard a private jet.

It was the kind of sensational content that spreads like wildfire on Nigerian social media communities.

Almost immediately, Oshiomhole’s media team issued a rebuttal, dismissing the clip as a sophisticated AI-generated fabrication. Whether the video is a genuine deepfake or a candid moment caught on camera is almost beside the point.

The incident highlights a terrifying reality: we have entered an era where visual evidence is no longer proof of truth, and Nigeria is woefully unprepared for the fallout.

The AI deepfake gulf between the global North and South 

The UK’s initiative acknowledges that the tools used to create deception are evolving faster than the human eye’s ability to detect them. By partnering with Microsoft, they are leveraging the same tier of technology used to create these fakes to detect them.

The big question, however, is who is doing the same for Nigerians?

While the Global North builds alliances with tech giants to sanitise their information ecosystems, the Global South is largely being left to fend for itself. Nigeria currently lacks a centralised, government-backed infrastructure for digital forensics. There is no announced partnership between the Federal Government and Silicon Valley to build an “Iron Dome” against digital misinformation.

Instead, the burden of truth falls on a scattered network of independent fact-checkers and civil society organisations. Groups like Dubawa, Africa Check, and the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) perform heroic work, but they are often fighting a machine-gun war with knives.

Investigating a deepfake requires complex analysis of pixelisation, lighting inconsistencies, and audio wave patterns, resources that require funding, advanced software, and technical expertise that outstrips the capacity of most NGOs.

The opening of the “Liar’s Dividend” floodgate in Nigerian politics

The Senator Oshiomhole incident introduces a secondary danger known as the “Liar’s Dividend”.

As deepfakes become more common, public figures caught in genuine scandals can simply claim the evidence is AI-generated. Without a trusted, independent authority to verify the authenticity of a video, the public is left in a state of perpetual doubt. Truth becomes a matter of political allegiance rather than objective reality.

In a volatile political climate like Nigeria’s, this is a recipe for disaster. Nigeria has a history of fake news leading to real-world consequences. We have seen how repurposed photos and false text messages have fuelled ethnic clashes and religious tensions.

Now, imagine the incendiary power of a realistic video showing a political leader inciting violence or a religious leader blaspheming. By the time the video is debunked, the streets might already be burning.

The UK-Microsoft deal signals that the West views deepfakes not just as a nuisance but as a national security threat. Nigeria must adopt a similar posture. The 2023 elections showed the massive influence of digital propaganda; the 2027 election cycle will likely be defined by AI.

We cannot wait for the technology to trickle down. The Nigerian government, in collaboration with the African Union, must demand a seat at the table with companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. If these companies profit from the African market, they must contribute to its safety.

We need localised algorithms trained on African datasets (accents, languages, and cultural contexts) to effectively spot anomalies in our own media.

Furthermore, digital literacy must become a cornerstone of our national education. If the average citizen cannot distinguish between a real video and a Midjourney creation, no amount of software will save us.

The Oshiomhole video is a warning shot. Today, it is a video of a senator on a private jet; tomorrow, it could be a fabricated declaration of war or a deepfake of a central banker crashing the naira. We must ask ourselves: when the “Big Lie” comes for Nigeria, who will have the tools to stop it? The time to build our defences is not after the damage is done, but right now.

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