Nigeria is an exciting political space. Anyone who keenly follows politics on the African continent knows that when it comes to politicking and horse trading at the last moment, Nigeria stands apart. It is no surprise that Nollywood is never in short of story ideas because even the reality happen as though they were scripted by a brilliant writer. Last
week’s drama in the green and red chamber still dawdles in public conversation. In summary, the election into the office of the Senate President, Deputy Senate President and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives ended with wonder. The Nigerian public, now heavily politically conscious, weighed in with opinions and analysis with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter being the real time outlets. By the time the election was over on June 9, Senator Bukola Saraki of the All Progressives Congress and former Governor of Kwara State emerged as the Senate President of the 8th republic while Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party was also voted in unopposed by the 57 members of the red chamber that participated in the election. In the House of Representative, the APC’s choice, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila lost the speakership to Hon. Yakubu Dogara from Bauchi State and Hon. Yusuf Lasun from Osun State won the Deputy Speakership seat with 203 votes to defeat his rival, Mohammed Mogunu from Borno who had153 votes.
In Nigeria’s social media space, Senator Saraki and Hon. Gbajabiamila (@femigbaja) from Lagos State were the preferred candidate despite the choice of the ruling party. And this perhaps helped in part to enhance the disposition of their colleagues towards their candidature. The chief reason why Saraki won nevertheless was because he took his destiny into his own hands. Omo Baba Oloye, as he is called in deference to his late father, Senator Olusola Saraki, senate leader in the 2nd Republic showed that beyond getting it right in cyber space, he was also familiar with the tone of the game in the red chamber. It was the younger Saraki who retired the older Saraki from politics when both of them went to test their strength with the 2011 gubernatorial elections in Kwara State. That is now history.
For a race that started with about six other senators including Senators George Akume, Olusola Adeyeye, Danjuma Goje, Ahmad Lawan, Ali Ndume and Usman Nafada. Saraki’s win deserves closer study. He joined twitter five years ago and currently has about 200,000 followers and has about 12,000 tweets to his name. His twitter bio now reads thus – ‘Senate President and Chairman of the 8th National Assembly. Committed to Transparency and Accountability.’ Hon. Gbajabiamila on the other hand tweeted on June 12 saying ‘I appreciate all the support and goodwill messages before, during and after the contest.’ It is a clear hint that the result have been accepted and he is ready to sheathe his political sword; at least for now. With 16,200 followers, the lawyer turned politician has a decent following on twitter which he joined in 2012. When Hon. Monguno stepped down for his speakership candidature, it was to twitter he turned to tell the world.
The new speaker, Hon. Dogara though unverified on twitter has about 8,000 followers and is beginning to understand that the social media space cannot be ignored. As I write this, the speaker’s latest tweet indicates that he is at a thanksgiving service. @bukolasaraki’s twitter account is verified and his engagement with the space is one of the best currently in the Senate. Sharing timely information and dispelling rumours, Saraki for instance used a paid twitter advertorial to put to rest the allusion that he called Vice President Yemi Osinbajo a ‘former mere commissioner’. It is also the credit of the former Chairman, Senate committee on Environment and Ecology that he has a personal website available through www.abubakarbukolasaraki.com Senator Saraki and Senator Dogara however have to understand that the task before them goes beyond the image making roles that social media offers. The ready availability of information to the public through their personal communication outlets and the National Assembly’s official outlets are strategic for effective law-making.
Saraki’s website will benefit from a good review of the broken links and should have plugins to his social media accounts. Saraki and Dogara’s handlers also need to be concerned about the quality of images that go with their posts. Devices with better image resolutions would pay off. Like most leaders, no one expects the Senate President and the Speaker to update their social media accounts themselves, at least not all the time. Young people who are technology savvy are known to be at the back end, punching the keyboards and squeezing the keypads of phones to ensure that their principals can interact with the growing Nigeria social media audience. It is a job market that is growing. Last week at the Post-Election Youth Conference convened by the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement and funded by the Democratic Governance for Development Project of the United Nations Development Program, one of the moderator mentioned that he his aware of six legislators in the 8th assembly currently looking to hire young people who understand issues in the legislature and can handle their social media accounts. It is a confirmation that social media use will engineer part of the ‘change’ in this new government.
One politician in Nigeria who seems to lead the pack in the deployment of social media in the political space is former vice president Atiku Abubakar. With eyes still purportedly trained on the presidency, Atiku continues to engage with the public hoping that when the time comes again, his efforts will pay off. www.atiku.org is a worthy effort in response to the needs of the politics of this age. Since participation is at the heart of development and legislation, @bukolasaraki and @doyakubu have to continue feeling the pulse of the country both offline and online. They will need to respond to as many interactions as possible through social media. It is the most effective way people can reach them and they can reach Nigerians.
@SolaFagro on twitter.
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‘Sola Fagorusi is a social entrepreneur and a prized freelance writer with a bias for youth and rural development. He started off as a youth staff with Action Health Incorporated in 2001. The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife alumnus currently manages the programmes ofOneLife Initiative, Nigeria. ‘Sola is a DESPLAY Africa (Africa’s foremost and most consistent annual youth democracy academy) fellow and has been on its faculty since 2011. Keenly interested in governance and pan-Africanism, he volunteers as online editor of YouthHub Africa; a cyber-community for young Africans involved in social change. He believes in the efficacy of oratory and writing as tools to drive developmental engagements. As a freelance writer, he spares time to pen thoughts on contemporary societal issues and is a weekly columnist with Nigeria’s most read daily ? Punch Newspaper. His training and capacity cuts across democracy and governance, leadership, micro-enterprise, ICT4D, SRH, value chains, development communication and policy issues. He tweets @SolaFagro and blogs at www.kadunaboy.com
