- As NGE Sets Agenda for Democracy, Elections
By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-chief)
Enugu is set to become the centre of Nigeria’s media and democratic conversation from tomorrow, Wednesday, September 23, 2026, as more than 300 members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), media executives and other participants are expected to begin arriving in the Coal City of Enugu for the 22nd All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC 2026).
The two-day conference, officially scheduled for Thursday, September 24, and Friday, September 25, will hold at The Dome, International Conference Centre, Okpara Square Road, Enugu, with the theme: “The Ballot, the Media and the Task of Keeping Democracy Alive.”
Its sub-theme is: “When Lies Look Real: Detecting and Debunking AI Disinformation Before, During and After Elections.”
Although preparations have been made for hundreds of delegates arriving from different parts of Nigeria from Wednesday, September 23, 2026, the NGE says the overall conference is expected to attract more than 500 editors, government officials, academics, civil society representatives and other stakeholders.
The conference assumes particular significance coming barely months before the 2027 general elections, when the credibility of information available to Nigerian voters, the conduct of political actors and the ability of the media to separate facts from sophisticated digital falsehoods will come under intense scrutiny.
Nigeria's Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, is scheduled to declare the conference open on Thursday, September 24, 2026. Shettima is expected to address the gathering on democracy, elections, press freedom and national development, while Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah, is also expected to address the editors and other participants.
The conference will be chaired by the Obi of Onitsha, His Royal Majesty Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, while former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address.
The choice of the conference theme reflects a growing concern within the Nigerian media establishment that the battle for the credibility of elections is no longer fought only at polling stations, collation centres and the courts. Increasingly, the battle is also being fought in newsrooms, on social-media platforms and across the digital information ecosystem where fabricated stories, manipulated photographs, cloned voices and artificially generated videos can circulate at extraordinary speed.
Already, a formidable broad panel of speakers ranging from journalists, academics, lawyers and other experts have been assembled to examine different dimensions of Nigeria's democratic and media challenges. Professor Auwal Yadudu of Bayero University, Kano, is expected to speak on “Public Trust, Electoral Justice and Democratic Stability.” The immediate past President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, will examine “Election Petitions in the Digital Age: Independence, Evidence, BVAS and the Courts.”
The issue of professional journalism and election security will come under discussion when Professor Chinyere Okunna, a deputy vice chancellor of Paul University, Awka, Anambra state speaks on “Neutrality, Professionalism and Election Security in Democratic Governance.” Veteran journalists, Martins Oloja (a former Group Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of the Guardian Newspapers) and Owei Lakemfa (a former Labour Editor of Vanguard Newspapers), are scheduled to address the sensitive question of terrorism reporting under the topic, “Reporting Terrorism Without Becoming a Tool for Terrorists.”
Professor Farooq A. Kperogi , a faculty member of Kennesaw State University, Georgia, United States, will lead the discussion on the conference's AI disinformation sub-theme, focusing on how journalists can identify and debunk increasingly sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence-generated falsehood before, during and after elections. The programme will also consider the human cost of journalism. Dr Richard Okoye, Founder and Chief Medical Director of Save A Life Hospital, Port Harcourt, will address “The Human Side of Journalism: Managing Stress, Deadlines and Personal Wellbeing.”
The second day will also feature an Executive Session, during which editors are expected to engage governors, political party leaders and heads of government agencies and parastatals on issues of national importance.
From Owerri (2022) to Uyo (2023) to Bayelsa (2024) and Abuja (2025), Enugu ANEC 2026 will not be taking place in isolation. It is the latest stage in an annual conversation through which the NGE has attempted to confront Nigeria's political, economic, security and media challenges. The 18th ANEC in Owerri in 2022, for instance, was held under the theme “Political Landscape, Credible Elections and the Role of Editors.” About 320 editors attended that conference, where the Guild urged the media to put political actors under greater scrutiny, promote issue-based campaigns and help Nigerians make informed choices.
That theme is strikingly relevant to the 2026 conference because the fundamental question has not disappeared, which is: how can editors help citizens distinguish genuine democratic choices from political propaganda and manipulation? The 2024 conference in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, broadened the discussion to include the economic survival of the media itself. The Guild called for measures to mitigate the effects of fuel-subsidy removal and exchange-rate volatility, urged media organisations to invest in digital transformation and training, and raised concerns about laws it regarded as restrictive of press freedom. It also adopted discussions around the sustainability crisis confronting journalism in the age of Big Tech.
In 2025, the Guild's discussions again focused heavily on national security, diversity, peace, stability and the media's responsibility in reporting security challenges. Its communiqué called for improved intelligence gathering, attention to laws affecting journalism and stronger adherence to professional and ethical standards. ANEC 2025 in Abuja subsequently concentrated on democratic governance, national cohesion and electoral integrity, with the media's role in rebuilding public trust ahead of 2027 featuring prominently in the discussions. More than 500 editors reportedly attended.
WHAT THE ENUGU ANEC 2026 SHOULD LOOK FORWARD TO ACHIEVE
The central challenge for ANEC 2026, therefore, is not simply to produce another impressive communiqué. Over the years, the Guild has demonstrated its capacity to identify some of Nigeria's most pressing problems. The more difficult question is whether the conclusions reached at such gatherings can be converted into sustained professional action, public advocacy and measurable change. This year's conference offers the NGE an opportunity to move from declarations to deliverables.
First, the Guild needs to develop a practical framework for election reporting ahead of 2027. Such a framework should address verification, the treatment of political claims, the use of anonymous sources, reporting of opinion polls, election results, social-media material and the publication of AI-generated or manipulated content about the election activities.
Secondly, Nigerian newsrooms need a stronger collective response to AI disinformation. The problem cannot be solved merely by telling journalists to “fact-check”. News organisations require trained verification desks, appropriate technology, cross-newsroom cooperation and clear protocols for authenticating suspicious audio, photographs, documents and videos.
Thirdly, ANEC 2026 should produce a stronger mechanism for following up its resolutions. A conference communiqué can make powerful recommendations, but its impact becomes difficult to measure if nobody returns six or 12 months later to ask: What has been implemented? What did government do? What did the media do? And what actually changed?
The Guild could, for example, establish an annual ANEC Implementation Report, documenting the status of major resolutions from previous conferences. The media's credibility is also at stake. And perhaps, the most important issue before the editors in Enugu is the credibility of the media itself.
The Nigerian public is increasingly confronted by competing narratives from newspapers, television, radio, online publications, influencers, political campaign organisations and social-media platforms.
In such an environment, the professional editor becomes more—not less—important.
The editor's traditional responsibility of checking facts, providing context, balancing competing claims and protecting the public from deliberate falsehoods has acquired a new technological dimension. A fabricated video may look authentic. A cloned voice may sound exactly like a public official. A false quotation can be generated within seconds. A manipulated photograph can acquire thousands of shares before a newsroom has established that it is fake. As editors or newsroom get-keepers, we are confronted daily by these situations.
Consequently, the media's responsibility before the 2027 elections will not merely be to report what political actors say. As ace Journalist, Dele Giwa once wrote in his 'Parallax Snaps' colume in Newswatch magazine early 1986, that "Journalism has gone past the stage in which all a reporter does, is to report whatever a man says". Therefore, it will increasingly be to establish whether what they say is true, misleading, incomplete or demonstrably false. That responsibility places enormous importance on editorial independence.
What Nigerians should expect from Enugu as editors gather from Thursday morning should be to look at, and dissect these realizes. The presence of the Vice President of Nigeria or his representative (since he is still in the US for the UNGA Conference) and other senior government and public figures, should provide the editors with an opportunity to raise difficult questions about press freedom, access to information, electoral credibility, security, accountability and the relationship between government and the media.
But the conference should equally provide government with an opportunity to hear directly from the people who manage Nigeria's major newsrooms. That two-way engagement is particularly important as Nigeria approaches another major electoral cycle.
ANEC 2026 should therefore aim to leave Enugu with several concrete outcomes: a credible professional framework for election coverage; a practical strategy against AI-driven disinformation; renewed commitments to editorial independence and ethical journalism; stronger cooperation among media organisations; and a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of resolutions.
The NGE's own recent history provides a useful benchmark. Its conferences have repeatedly identified the country's problems—from electoral integrity and security to media sustainability and press freedom. The test this time is whether ANEC 2026 can help turn those diagnoses into sustained action.
As my home state, Enugu, receives the editors tomorrow, the city will temporarily become more than the host of another professional gathering. It will become a forum in which the guardians of Nigeria's public information system confront one of the country's most consequential questions ahead of 2027: Can the Nigerian media help citizens find the truth when technology makes falsehood increasingly difficult to distinguish from reality?
The answer emerging from the conference may ultimately matter far beyond the journalism profession. It could influence the quality of public debate, the credibility of electoral information and, ultimately, the capacity of Nigerians to make informed democratic choices.
May the God Almighty guide the NGE to a result-oriented annual conference in Enugu. NNL.
