This is the 21st century and expectedly as Nigeria’s 2023 general elections approach, people will say that the social media cannot be in the background because there are many people pushing for different agenda of different political parties and their candidates.
With what is happening on social media some people believe a candidate can win an election on social media while others believe it cannot. However, there has not been a report that somebody has actually won an election through the support of social media but social media has been a platform mostly used by politicians to disseminate information.
The Role of Social media in politics keeps evolving over time as the World keeps getting digitized, data becomes like air people breathe in and could not do without so as to stay abreast of what is going on around the globe through social media.
It is being used as an opinion poll for people on divergent views. Nigeria has over 30 million active twitter users; facebook has over 2 billion active users all over the world. People have seen the platform as a great opportunity to disseminate their information and get people’s opinion. It is confrontational because people have the privilege of giving feedback unlike radio or television where you may not have the opportunity of saying something in return. This shows how powerful social media is as a tool to set agenda and mould public opinion. The politicians can get engaged with their followers before, during and after the election. The people in government can use it to get feedback from the people.
Social media is an interactive technology that facilitates the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks.
Social media platforms allow users to have conversations, share information and create web content. There are many forms of social media, including blogs, micro-blogs, wikis, social networking sites, instant messaging, video-sharing sites, podcasts, widgets, virtual worlds, and more.
With the growth of the internet, more activities are being conducted online and politics is no exception. Political parties, other groups and individuals are increasingly using the internet to spread their messages.
A communication platform such as social media is persuasive, and often works to change or influence opinions when it comes to political views because of the abundance of ideas, thoughts, and opinions circulating through the social media platform.
According to Wikipedia, “Social media use in politics refers to the use of online social media platforms in political processes and activities. Political processes and activities include all activities that pertain to the governance of a country or area. This includes political organization, global politics, political corruption, political parties, and political values”.
The internet has created channels of communication that play a key role in circulating news, and social media has the power to change not just the message, but the dynamics of political corruption, values, and the dynamics of conflict in politics.
Through the use of social media in election processes, global conflict, and extreme politics, diplomacy around the world has become less private and susceptible to the public perception.
Nowadays people are completely dependent on social media for any news, which makes it an opportunity for political candidates, they now also take to the internet to raise awareness, state views, and even successfully raise donations. Politicians also make use of platforms like facebook, twitter, instagram etc to propagate the work they are doing in office.
Aliyu Abdulkareem an IT consultant, while giving his opinion on the role of social media in politics said that it is obvious social media is ruling the world as it is. He said some people don’t even know the contenders in politics, they find out about what they have done on social media so that alone is something.
He mentioned that although the use of social media is now elaborate, it doesn’t determine the result of the election as it is very glaring that not everybody on social media has a permanent voter’s card (PVC) or will go out to vote on Election Day.
He said social media is not what determines the outcome of elections but it plays a big role in elections. According to him, social media creates awareness for people. People get to know about the contenders and pretenders for election. For example the trending Obidient movement that everybody knows about. If the noise that the Obidient people are making on social media is to determine an election, Peter Obi will definitely win but unfortunately, social media doesn’t determine the winner.
A political analyst, Stephen Alabi in his opinion on the role of social media in politics also said that as of today, social media carries the largest percentage of important parts of every politicians, even though, 60-70% of the real voters are not on social Media, but whatever the social media tells you about yourself or portrays you to be is what the electorate that doesn’t even have access to the social media will believe.
He said it is everything cooked on social media and taken home that people that are not on social media will believe as there are literates who discuss the latest on social media with their parents or members of their family that are not on social media which they tend to believe and trust what they say.
He added that social media is not something one can put aside when it comes to politics, as it can make or mar a politician. He gave an example of Deborah’s killing that took place in the North a few months back and while reacting to the gruesome murder of the lady by some religion extremism, Presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar made a tweet in his twitter handle that generated a lot of reactions from northern group within five minutes that he tweeted and that made him to delete his tweet because he needed the vote of his northern people, so he had no choice.
He concluded by saying the role of social media in politics is very important even though the largest number of electorates are not on social media but whatever happens on social media gets to them.
Looking at the effect of social media in politics, if as a politician and your presence is felt on social media, you have direct contact with many people to express yourself with, air their views and opinion about yourself and your political ambition. It gives you an opportunity of knowing whether you are acceptable or not.
Look at what happened in October, 2020 in Lagos, Ibadan and some other parts of the country when the people decided to put an end to police brutality tagged #endsars#, the Nigerian youths that protested came together without knowing themselves before. They spread the information through social media and the country was almost grounded. The effect of the protest was that it led to the reform of the Nigerian police system in the country.
In conclusion, while social media plays a significant role in information dissemination about political activity and conduct of election, the question is can it be the determinant factor of the candidates and the political parties that will win the next 2023 general elections in Nigeria? Time will tell.
