Social Media And The Nigerian Election

president-elect

Our dearly beloved country, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, just concluded the much anticipated presidential elections and it was surprisingly peaceful. Nigeria with a population of 173.6million has a large percentage of it’s population active on the internet. When the social media first made it’s entrance into the Nigerian society, it was mostly associated with the much younger generation and jobless population. Now every organization worth it’s salt has a department specially for it’s social media requirements.
Social media is one of the many tools that helps to amplify the voices of Nigerians, taking normal, ordinary voices and making them extra-ordinary. Statistics show that more than 90 million Nigerians own mobile phones and millions more have access to the Internet.
Social media was a game changer in the election, it enabled those active in the electoral process interact with the youth and other interested parties, tweeting about events happening at press conferences, uploading pictures, commenting on everything from the weather to the candidate’s choice of clothes etc. Many Nigerians used the new technology to ask the various candidates about their policies. It was something the parties involved were using to keep in contact with their voting base. They used it to refute misinformation, make campaign announcements, etc.
The social media were also used to monitor the electoral process in real time, people were using Facebook and Twitter to give first-hand account of their experiences at their polling centers. Elections may not be won on social media, but perceptions are shaped there.
Even though the incumbent president announced his intention to run for another term on Facebook first, we are of the opinion that his campaign team didn’t utilize the enormous opportunity presented by the social media in his campaign, for instance his Twitter handle @presgoodluck…. has 32 tweets with the last one in 2011 and about 25000 followers, as opposed to the president elect GMB who joined Twitter in December and was able to garner over 117,000 and has about 900 tweets, his Twitter account has also been verified by Twitter same goes for his running mate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo with 430 tweets and 80,000 followers.

incumbent president

APC did harvest the enormous opportunity presented by the social media platforms while PDP was playing catch up. The fact that they were able to recognize the importance and vital role social media has come to play in our growing society and harness it may have contributed to their eventual success in the presidential elections.
All in all social media played a major role in the electoral process.