ARCON Threatens Prosecution Over 2027 Political Advertisements

The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria issued a stern warning to politicians, political parties, and their consultants against running political advertisements across any platform, including television, radio, print, and digital, without obtaining prior approval and certification from the council ahead of the 2027 election cycle.

ARCON Director General Lekan Fadolapo said the council was monitoring the early stages of political campaign activities and had already observed instances of unauthorised political advertising that violated the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice. He warned that those who flouted the rules would face prosecution and possible suspension of their advertising accounts.

Council Sets Clear Guidelines

Fadolapo said all political advertisements must be submitted to ARCON for vetting before publication or broadcast to ensure they comply with truthfulness, decency, and factual accuracy standards. He said the council would be particularly vigilant against political advertisements that contained false claims, defamatory content, hate speech, or material likely to inflame ethnic and religious tensions.

The warning is particularly timely given the Ekiti election’s documented instances of disinformation circulating on social media, including the debunked viral posts falsely claiming the Oyo school abduction victims had been rescued. Election monitoring groups said disinformation was becoming an increasingly organised feature of Nigerian electoral campaigns.

AI and Social Media Identified as Key Risks

Furthermore, Vanguard reported this week on a security assessment that identified social media volatility, AI-driven disinformation, and foreign information manipulation as the three primary emerging threats to Nigeria’s 2027 elections. The assessment recommended stronger cooperation between ARCON, the National Information Technology Development Agency, and the National Cybersecurity Agency to detect and counter harmful election-related content. Consequently, Nigeria’s regulatory agencies are beginning to take the AI disinformation threat seriously ahead of what is expected to be the most digitally contested election in the country’s history.