USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN POLITICAL MOBILIZATION DURING THE 2019 GENERAL ELECTION IN NIGERIA
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USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN POLITICAL MOBILIZATION DURING THE 2019 GENERAL ELECTION IN NIGERIA
Using Social Media for Political Mobilisation in Nigeria’s 2019 General Election
1.0 Introduction.
Since the 2008 and 2012 Obama election campaigns, as well as the Arab spring that swept across North Africa, the role of social and digital media (web 2.0) has grown to become a true tool in boosting social transformation and political engagement.
Indeed, communication via media has always been important to democracy and its institutions. Scholars in the fields of media, political science, and information communication, such as Garrett (2006), Castells (2012), Morozov (2015, 2012)
Bennett and Segerberg (2012), and Bosch (2017), have emphasised how social media has aided social and political movements by facilitating and promoting democratisation, reinforcing social change, and government commitments.
The Internet’s advent as the new mass medium of the twenty-first century has significantly altered the mass media landscape. Information may be delivered quickly, cheaply, and broadly, resulting in equal access to news generation and consumption (Prat and Strömberg, 2015).
Nigeria’s 2019 general elections marked a substantial break from the usual in Nigerian political history. It was the first time a reigning party has been voted out of power. It was also the first time that more than three of Nigeria’s largest opposition parties, as well as a faction of a fourth, came together and successfully created a unified political party (merger) to depose an existing government, the People’s Democratic Party, or PDP.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), which won the 2019 presidential election, was formed in February 2013 by the merging of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)
the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance. It was also the first time a calm and mature transition occurred, with an incumbent president conceding defeat and bowing out.
While any of the variables stated above, as well as many more, may claim sole credit for the 2019 general elections’ remarkable success, the reality is a combination of several factors, one of which is the openness and transparency enabled by digital technology.
As political and electoral events unfolded, social media was utilised in record numbers to publicise, campaign for, and disseminate information online. Both politicians and voters used social media extensively to achieve their objectives.
It is thus more accurate to say that the tactical strategy of opposition politicians to use all means, including the internet, to defeat the incumbent administration on the one hand, and the electorate’s determination to use whatever channel is available, including social media, to ensure their votes counted in the 2019 general elections, was much more pronounced than in any previous election.
The recent election of Muhammadu Buhari as President of Nigeria has been lauded internationally as a historic transfer of power for Africa’s most populous country, with social media having a larger part or influencing the election’s fairness. Social media, despite its limitations, has the power of immediacy. They are also highly participative.
In an election where residents are participating, they also provide news and information about the election. People were empowered by their votes, as well as their ability to distribute information. That’s not to suggest traditional media didn’t have an impact.
However, social media played a crucial influence. The globe is becoming more connected because to the power of the Internet; Facebook created internet.org, an attempt to provide even the most remote corners of society access to the globe Wide Web.
Political movements have begun to regard social media as a major organising and recruitment tool, and the opposite is true for society. Because social media is a two-way communication mechanism, it provides all of these benefits when used correctly.
Instead of receiving marketing messaging, you receive recommendations from friends in the form of re-shares and recommended articles, which reduces the commercialization of the brand message.
Social media is that arena, with various tools that help to magnify the voices of regular Nigerians, taking ordinary voices and making them remarkable by bringing them to homes, offices, and places most of them would never have gotten to otherwise.
It originated as a playground for largely young unemployed individuals. Today, it has become the battleground for what could be Nigeria’s most contested election in history.
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