Sultan, Vatican warn hate speech, fake news threaten peace
The Sultan of Sokoto and the Vatican have warned that hate speech and fake news threaten peaceful coexistence and national stability in Nigeria.
The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, and the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organisations, Paul Richard Gallagher, have expressed concern over the growing spread of hate speech and fake news, warning that both threaten peaceful coexistence in Nigeria.
The concerns were raised after a meeting between the Sultan and Archbishop Gallagher at the National Mosque in Abuja, where they discussed interfaith relations, security and cooperation between Muslim and Christian communities. The Sultan, who was represented by NSCIA deputy secretary general, Salisu Shehu, said both sides agreed that religious leaders must work together to promote peace and counter narratives that can fuel division.
Shehu added that participants also condemned the growing trend of insulting religious leaders and other citizens. He explained that fake news had also become a source of instability. “Fake news is another evil that is being used in the country to precipitate a lot of troubles in the country, and therefore, this is something that we need to fight,” he said.
Shehu said the discussions also centred on growing moral decline and increasing rejection of religion among young people. Archbishop Gallagher said the meeting revealed broad agreement between Muslim and Catholic leaders on issues affecting Nigeria. He added that cooperation between both faiths remained essential to national development. “There is a common conviction that Christians and Muslims, particularly the leadership, must work together for the common good of all Nigerians,” he said.
The joint warning from Nigeria’s most senior Islamic leader and a senior Vatican official is unusual and significant. It reflects a growing recognition that the country’s information ecosystem has become a threat to its social fabric. The 2023 elections were marked by a flood of disinformation, much of it targeting religious and ethnic divisions. The 2027 elections are likely to be worse.
This echoes the 2011 post-election violence in northern Nigeria, when fake news and hate speech fuelled deadly clashes between communities. The mechanism then was different, but the result was the same: Nigerians died because of words.
The winners: the Sultan and the Vatican, who have raised the alarm. The losers: the Nigerian public, which continues to be exposed to hate speech and disinformation, and the country’s social fabric, which is being torn apart one post at a time.
Bottom Line: The Sultan and the Vatican agree: hate speech and fake news are destroying Nigeria. The question is whether anyone is listening.