THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN STRENGTHENING DEMOCRATIC IDEALS IN NIGERIA
As our democracy evolves and as Nigerians discover the importance of social media, these mobile applications continue to play an indispensable role in our emerging democracy.
With the popularity of smartphones in 2007, social media gradually became part of our lives, from fun to serious issues like governance.
2011 and 2015 elections opened the way to e-electioneering in Nigeria where social media became a major driver of change in our democracy from campaign to voting, down to transparency and accountability in governance. However, in spite of the fact that relatively few persons are internet compliant, it is discovered that number is not much of a barrier
to social media, even though number can enhance its capabilities.
That political alertness, which is presently lacking, is as important as the number in social media. But that apathy and ignorance remain a major setback to exploiting the full potentials of the media in the fight against corruption and other vices. It is also discovered that for e-electioneering to be complete, electronic voting is an essential component.
The social media is yet to commence the push in this direction in such a way as to direct attention of lawmakers to amend the constitution to accommodate that final lap of e-electioneering. CSOs are required to fill this gap through awareness creation and capacity building before we can reap the full reward of social media
Personal communication via social media brings politicians and parties closer to their potential voters. It allows politicians to communicate faster and reach citizens in a more targeted manner and vice versa, without the intermediate role of mass media.
In fact, the 2015 elections were won and lost in the social media even before the results were declared by INEC according to Eddings, a columnist with PM News, an online newspaper.
Social media has provided people with choices to select from multiple streams of information uncensored. It also creates a platform for users of same goals and aspirations to meet to enhance their opportunities.
Politicians leveraged on this factor to mobilize followership and this payed off in 2011/2015 elections in Nigeria.
As at 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan was said to have mustered about 300,000 followers in one of his Facebook pages.
By 2015 election that figure jumped to 1.7 million followers (NAIJ.com).
Another Presidential Aspirant, Mr. Dele Momodu was also reported to have over 400,000 followers in one of his Facebook account (Ekine).
Mr. Momodu has been reported to have had more than 2 Facebook accounts associated with him.
President Buhari, though a new entrant into social media, recorded almost 150,000 followers ahead of the presidential elections.
Holding public office holders accountable
The 2015 Nigeria election is lost and won. The business of strengthening democracy only begins with elections, but it does not end with it.
Now is the time to continuously hold government accountable to ensure that politicians keep their campaign promises for which they were elected.
Even though the media is already playing this role, users need to discuss serious issues that bother on governance.
Civil society organizations and the opposition parties are trying their best both online and offline. How much of this fight actually comes from the people?
Holding government officials accountable is the main responsibility of the people. CSOs and opposition parties can only raise issues, but it behooves on the people to sustain the effort. The Nigeria social media
subscribers are not effectively taking up this challenge due to lack of in - depth knowledge of issues and sometimes courage.
Though Fasan argues that they have creative ways of presenting some of the issues like the juxtaposition of actual pictures of Nigeria rulers and their foreign counterparts, the real issues are yet to be touched.
Fasan drew examples of the picture of the former British PM David Cameron running to board his flight carrying his bag and another picture of President GEJ walking up a fight with his aid carrying his bag.
According to Fasan, this subtle criticism or “interrogation of power”
alone keeps Nigeria politicians uncomfortable.
With the elongated passage of the 2016 budget, one expects to see serious comments on the budget items. Rather it is the same "creative" jokes about the missing budget that is dominant.
Pictures of a goat eating the budget papers and snacks of fried yam and akara wrapped in our budget are common features on Facebook.
Even now that the budget has been passed, not many
constructive comments are seen on the budget items.
A civil society organization, BudgIT posted a very graphic representation of the 2016 budget on Facebook, yet not many people are talking about the issues raised. So far that beautiful work has only three comments and no single like two weeks after the budget was signed by the President.
Another CSO hosted what they called Buharimeter to track the extent of which the present government keep to their campaign promises.
This website has a twitter and a Facebookaccount attached to it. Even though the twitter account has 6,401 followers, it has only 135 likes for all the interesting facts and figures raised in it.
The website is tracking 222 campaign promises made by the President and his political party, the APC during the campaign (buharimeter.ng).