“Bill Gates wants to reduce the world’s population through vaccines and GMOs”; “It’s an attempt to kill our girls”… these and many more narratives have trailed the HPV vaccination programme in Nigeria.
Nigeria has always struggled with vaccine hesitancy resulting from several factors. Misinformation claiming that the HPV vaccine is an attempt to sterilise and depopulate Nigerians has permeated social media, alongside dire warnings of possible death if the vaccine is administered to individuals.
CERVICAL CANCER AND WHO IS AT RISK?
Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of death for Nigerian women. According to the World Health Organisation, cervical cancer is the third most common cancer and the second most frequent cause of cancer deaths among women aged between 15 and 44 years in Nigeria.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) 2023 factsheet, Nigeria has a population of 60.9 million women, ages 15 years and older, who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. The IARC data showed that 12,075 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer with 7,968 dying from the disease every year.
The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that can affect the throat, mouth, genital area, and skin. It is a widespread virus that can lead to various types of cancer, including cervical cancer. Sexually transmitted HPV could be high or low-risk.
The high-risk HPV can cause several types of cancer while the low-risk seldom causes cancer. Cervical cancer occurs in the cells of the cervix, which is the lower, narrow end of the womb and connects the womb to the birth canal. HPV infects cells in the cervix, changing them, and causing them to replicate and multiply uncontrolled.
Vaccinating girls and boys with the HPV vaccine before they are sexually active is the most effective way of preventing cervical cancer. It would also reduce the spread of HPV.
THE HPV VACCINE
The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine helps protect against several strains of HPV that are most likely to cause cancer. The Nigerian government announced the rollout of the HPV vaccine in October 2023 – with plans to incorporate it into routine immunisation nationwide.
The World Health Organisation recommends that the vaccine be given to girls between the ages of nine to fourteen years – before they become sexually active. In October 2023, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, through its National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), supported by WHO, GAVIi, The Vaccine Alliance, and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), rolled out a mass HPV vaccination campaign in 16 states – in its phase one. The second phase of vaccination began in May 2024.
The aim is to achieve mass vaccination that can protect unvaccinated individuals from HPV.
MISTRUST AND HESITANCY AGAINST HPV VACCINE
The announcement of the vaccine rollout was met with mixed feelings – while some praised the Nigerian government for the medical initiative, some others vehemently expressed their disapproval of the vaccination programme.
Despite the campaigns for mass vaccination to date, there is still a pushback with different narratives laced with conspiracy theories against the HPV vaccine.
The vaccine hesitancy appears to have stemmed from a lack of education; lack of the right knowledge about vaccines and how they work; distrust of the government; distrust of Western health aids and their end goal, as well as cultural background.
Public figures like Ahmad Isah, popularly known as Ordinary President and the owner of Brekete FM, have been involved in the dissemination of some of these anti-vaccine narratives.
On October 25, 2023, during one of its episodes on Brekete Family, a reality television and radio programme focusing on human rights issues, Isah warned parents not to allow their adolescent girls to take the HPV vaccine.
“Those of you who have daughters like me, if any school calls you to sign that they want to give you cervical cancer vaccine to your daughters, you should not agree,” he said in Pidgin.
“America, China, Uk are yet to get the cure for cancer. You should not forget what happened in Kano when Pfizer killed many children. When the matter was taken to court, they presented documents (as their defence) showing the consent of the parents.
“Now, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the one pushing this vaccine. By the time the vaccine begins to generate sicknesses in the lives of our daughters, we won’t know where to go.
“Let us prevent it now. These are people who said our population is too much. Do you think they will ever like us?”
As part of the campaign against the HPV vaccine, anti-vaxxers have deployed misinformation to drive the agenda against the vaccination programme. On different social media platforms including WhatsApp, messages are shared and forwarded, cautioning Nigerians against taking the HPV vaccine.
A post by @UchePOkoye asked residents of Enugu state ”not to allow your female child to be vaccinated for HPV of any kind.”
Similar posts can be seen here, here, and here.
A screenshot of a WhatsApp message spreading disinformation about HPV vaccine
THE GENESIS: CONSPIRACY THEORIES AGAINST BILL GATES
Bill Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), has always suffered the brunt of these misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccination. In 2020, speaking about how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions during a TED Talk, Gates said: “The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about nine billion. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by, perhaps, 10% or 15%.”
However, anti-vaxxers have capitalised on this part of the whole discussion which has been repeatedly taken out of context and misinterpreted. This phrase was misinterpreted to mean that Gates talked about reducing the world’s population through vaccines. The misinterpreted excerpt has been used to share misinformation about vaccines, including the HPV vaccine.
“So he’s saying through vaccines, abortion, and who knows what other “health care” he is referring to, we can lower the world’s population by 10-15%,” one of such claims reads.
The 2024 NutriVision, a pan-African dialogue on nutrition at which Bill Gates recently spoke, gave the conspiracy theorists another avenue to drive the campaign against the HPV vaccine further. Following the dialogue, hashtags like #GatesOfHell, #BillGates, and #GatesHell were created to drive the resistance, particularly on X (formerly Twitter). The event also recorded an uptick of anti-GMO campaigns.
NETWORKS AMPLIFYING VACCINES DISINFORMATION
TheCable conducted an in-depth analysis of the accounts spreading disinformation narratives about vaccines and Gates on X and identified 10 distinct networks involved. There was an interconnection between those pushing the anti-vaccine agenda and anti-GMO campaigners. The largest of these networks pushed the “anti-GMO Africa”, narrative and was led by @jcokechukwu. Most of the accounts in the anti-GMO Africa network amplified messages between June and July.
Network visualisation of the communities involved in the conversation
Area chart of community conversations over time
TACTICS USED IN PUSHING THE DISINFORMATION
These networks employed various disinformation tactics to spread misleading narratives. A common method was “distorting the facts,” where information or artifacts, like images, were reframed to suit disinformation goals. The accounts often tapped into existing conspiracy theories about figures like Bill Gates, making their false claims more credible.
Memes played a central role in pushing the disinformation narratives, reflecting a trend in computational propaganda where memes are a key tool for spreading misleading content. One notable example is how memes were used to amplify the anti-GMO and anti-vaccine hashtag #GatesOfHell. Unfortunately, this disinformation also made its way into traditional media outlets, such as the popular Abuja-based radio program, Brekete Family, which broadcasts in a local language, further spreading falsehoods to a wider audience.
Notably, the above tactics align with the DISARM framework, which standardises the identification of disinformation techniques and suggests precise responses. Beyond distorted facts, manipulated videos and recycled posts also helped promote the conspiracy theory about vaccines being used as a depopulation tool.
One prominent example was a post from @Rachael_W1, who reused a 2011 image showing a white woman holding a copy of The Sovereign Independent, an Irish newspaper with the headline: “Depopulation through forced vaccination: The zero carbon solution!” Next to the headline was a picture of Bill Gates, referencing his TED Talk. @Rachael_W1’s caption read: “The hypocrisy is real: Bill Gates, who says we should stop eating beef due to cow farts, just flew to Nigeria in a private jet. Now he’s trying to sell us GMO foods and vaccines. We must close the #GatesOfHell in Nigeria. Not allowed!!” Other accounts that also amplified the #GatesOfHell narrative, recycling similar disinformation can be found here, here, here, and here.
POSSIBLE PRO-RUSSIAN INFLUENCE
Interestingly, @jcokechukwu, a key figure in the Anti-GMO Africa network, is also a vocal supporter of Russia’s stance on the Ukraine invasion and the Israel-Palestine conflict. His pro-Russian views were frequently shared in the same network spreading disinformation about Bill Gates. Interestingly, spikes in the conversation occurred before Gates visit to Nigeria on September 3, suggesting a possible link between these events and broader geopolitical narratives.
VACCINE CONSPIRACY THEORY A RECURRENT ISSUE IN NIGERIA
Vaccine conspiracy has always been a recurrent issue in Nigeria. From the polio vaccine to the COVID-19 vaccine, and the HPV vaccine, the conspiracies have always raged.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, different theories sprung up about how the COVID-19 virus was a fluke and how the purchase and deployment of vaccines was a ruse, and a means to make money off the people. Some claimed the vaccination programme was an avenue to implant microchips in Nigerians. There were calls for people to avoid vaccination. Some went as far as saying people died or lost the use of a particular body organ after the COVID-19 vaccination.
The rollout of the Malaria vaccine, endorsed by the WHO in 2021, has also been met with vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Other disinformation narratives have been propagated against the Bill Gates Foundation, including cloning organs for sale. A YouTube channel – Universal Heritage TV Naija – interviewed a purported doctor called Philip Njemanze who claimed that Gates plans to wipe out Nigerian doctors and take over the primary health care (PHC) system in Nigeria.
In the video, he accused Gates of sponsoring bandits to attack farmers so that he could drive them out of their farms and take over the agriculture sector by introducing genetically modified plants.
“He wants to eliminate seed growers (farmers) so that the natural seeds won’t be available again. When you eliminate the seed growers, there will be no alternative to the genetically modified organisms food and seeds,” Njemanze claimed.
The video tagged ‘Bill Gates agenda in Africa’ has been widely shared on WhatsApp – where it was first seen by TheCable.
Many of these claims have been fact-checked and debunked but the doubts and distrust about vaccines are still widespread, putting public health at risk.
This article was produced through a collaboration between The Cable and Code for Africa’s AAOSI programme. The AAOSI initiative is a collaborative effort to empower media and NGOs in African countries to combat disinformation and propaganda through training and resources, aiming to strengthen information integrity and foster collaboration among investigators in the region.
