PRESS RELEASE: Fact-checks on presidential degree fraud, impact of climate crisis on women the winners of 2024 African Fact-Checking Awards

ACCRA. Chiagozie Nwonwu, Fauziyya Tukur and Olaronke Alo were this year’s winners of the “Fact Check of the Year” by a Working Journalist’ category at the African Fact-Checking Awards ceremony in Ghana on 10 October.

Their winning entry addressed the controversy surrounding the eligibility of Bola Tinubu, the ruling party’s candidate for Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election.

Nwonwu and his colleagues on the BBC’s global disinformation team examined a claim by the legal team of one of Tinubu’s main rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, that Tinubu had forged his university degree.

Their investigation found no evidence to support the allegation.

Nwonwu said there had been a backlash from both the government and the public along political lines in response to their findings. This included petitions to the BBC and vitriolic attacks on both social and traditional media.

“It is important for journalists to know that fact-checking is not always about when you hold the government accountable, but it’s also about when you tell the truth, because it’s just the truth,” Nwonwu said as he accepted his award.

“We are not beholden to excite or distort, we are beholden to just tell the truth.”

Ousmane Mamoudou’s work for Niger’s Studio Kalangou, investigating the accuracy of claims about the Niger army’s military capabilities and Russian support, was runner-up in this category.

Professional fact-checker category winner

Adnan Sidibe was the winner in the professional fact-checker category. His fact-check focused on the impact of the climate crisis on women, and led the United Nations Development Programme to withdraw from its online publications a much-cited statistic that “80% of those affected by the climate crisis are women”.

Sidibe is a researcher with FasoCheck in Burkina Faso. “A better understanding of the impact of climate change on women will enable policies to be developed and actions to be taken that are genuinely tailored to their needs,” he said in his entry.

Sidibe said the awards represented “the pinnacle of fact-checking in Africa” and gave visibility and value to fact-checking journalism.

Simbiat Bakare of Nigeria’s Dubawa and James Okong’o of the AFP were the runners-up. Their work focused on a social media swindler faking illness to scam women and the harmful claims of a Kenyan anti-vaxxer doctor, respectively.

Student category winner

The winner in the student journalist category was Rita Enemuru from Nigeria. A student at the University of Oyo, Enemuru fact-checked widespread claims about mandatory DNA testing for new-born babies.

The University of Mauritius team of Caulleechurn Diksha, Deenoo Mansha, Kishto Preetish and Lallmamode Lloyd were the runners-up in this category.

Their detailed fact-check weighed up claims made on the campaign trail about the cost of living in the island nation ahead of the general election in November 2024.

The awards ceremony was part of the Africa Facts Summit organised by Africa Check, which brought together 200 participants from fact-checking organizations, academia, and technology giants.

Fact-checkers issue declaration

The annual summit addresses emerging issues such as artificial intelligence, belief systems in disinformation, and the future of fact-checking on the continent.

The meeting also issued a declaration in which the continent’s fact-checkers highlighted the harm of false information and the challenges of fact-checking in an environment where the majority of people have limited access to the internet and to reliable information.

They resolved to collaborate more to disrupt harmful information, engage partners, technology platforms, and governments on AI-driven solutions, improve digital literacy, and build systems to strengthen Africa’s information resilience and integrity.