Nigeria, Oct. 10 -- In May 2026, Nigeria experienced a revealing test of its preparedness for the age of synthetic media. A viral audio recording, apparently featuring President Bola Tinubu, circulated widely on social media. The voice made politically sensitive remarks about opposition parties, insecurity, public borrowing and the 2027 elections. The presidency condemned the recording, and presidential adviser Bayo Onanuga called for the prosecution of social media commentator Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, whom he accused of disseminating it.

The next day, FactCheckHub established that Mr Otse had not posted the manipulated recording. Someone had taken footage from one of his Instagram videos, added AI-generated audio re...