By ‘Sola Fagorusi
If the cover pages of our newspapers are anything to go by, then the dominant news in Nigeria is not the fight against Ebola swelling threat. It also isn’t the regular thudding of boots on the ground by our soldiers to run Boko Haram aground; on the contrary, it is politics. As we approach 2015, news of decamping, alignments and re-alignments within the political scenery of Nigeria is widespread. Of course they help lend credence to the submission that there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics; but what exists is permanent interest. The permutations are wild and surreal in some instances. I digress.
The 2011 election is still fresh in mind given the visual of the Nigerian map after the election. The activities leading to it also made the political scene charged and the deaths after the election left scars that will forever remind some families of the unfortunate death of their loved ones given the post-election violence. In the social media space however, it was a different account. It was a re-awakening of sort and adaptation of technology to the business of electioneering. It was not an isolated case. It started in 2008, the year the capacity and strength of the online media was redefined. It was the year the incumbent president of the United States, Senator Barack Obama won the first term of his presidency in a landslide victory. He won his Republican candidate opponent, Senator John McCain by a margin of nearly 200 electoral votes and 8.5 million popular votes by converting everyday people into engaged and empowered volunteers, donors and advocates through social networks, e-mail advocacy, text messaging and online video. By the time the elections were over it was obvious that never again in the world would election hold without due consideration given to the online media as against the regular use of just the mainstream media.
Following a flawed 2007 election in Nigeria and the eventual death of President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009, the appointment of Prof Attahiru Jega as the umpire of the electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission signalled hope for a hitherto jaundiced process. In another dimension, conversation in online space ensured that several decisions and policies by the government, INEC, contesting politicians, the law enforcement agency were subjected to constant review by a teeming number of Nigerians using the different online methods. The campaigns were also taken off the room onto the different platforms. The impact of the online media nevertheless represents a token that should not replace, in the minds of Nigeria, the failure of the electoral body to truly provide a free and fair election as promised that year.
The Online Media has helped people become the producer of their own media. Increase in telephone networks and internet technology in the country ensured social media platforms became prominent in Nigeria. The dominant players in the 2011 election vis-à-vis activities on online platforms were youths. Figures from INEC then showed that the number of registered voters in Nigeria had risen through the years, from almost 58 million in 1999 to 74 million in 2011. The 2011 presidential elections ended up as a contest between the ruling People’s Democratic Party’s candidate, Goodluck Jonathan, the Congress for Progress Change’s Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd) and the Action Congress of Nigeria ‘s Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. There were however 20 presidential aspirants for the election. Goodluck Jonathan won with Buhari and Ribadu being first and second runners up respectively. Jonathan had 22,495,187 votes; Buhari had 12,214,853 while Ribadu had 2,079,159 votes. Of the 74 million people registered to vote only 39,469,484 people voted during that election.
The handlers of the campaign for the presidential candidates knew that they could no longer ignore the popular online platforms. Goodluck Jonathan set the pace and joined Facebook on the 28th of June, 2010 and was able to attract over 100,335 fans in 11 days with an average of 1,500 comments per post. His first status read – Today, in fulfilment of the promise I made at the 26th convocation of the University of Port Harcourt on Saturday, 15 May 2010, I have created a Facebook fan page to interact with Nigerians. As I said on that day, there is an unchallengeable power of good in the Nigerian nation and her youth and through this medium I want Nigerians to give me the privilege of relating with them without the trappings of office. GEJ. At present, he has over 1,602,521 fans on the social networking site. His current Facebook fan base number places him third to President Barack Obama with 42,251, 118 fans and India’s Nerendra Modi with 20,672,430 fans among other presidents and prime ministers on Facebook. David Cameron of Britain has 299,996 fans and our east African neighbour Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya prides in his 1,158,978 fans.
Learning from the successful use of the social media platform by Obama and the desire to connect with technology savvy Nigerian youths, President Goodluck Jonathan embraced it before he commenced campaigns for his party’s ticket. The Obama campaign reached 5 million supporters on 15 different social networks over the course of the campaign season. By November 2008, Obama had approximately 2.5 million Facebook supporters, 115,000 Twitter followers, and 50 million viewers of his YouTube channel. Jonathan also launched a book titled – My Friends and I: Conversations on policy and governance via Facebook. The 357-page publication is a compilation of his Facebook postings and responses by his numerous readers and supporters. Other candidates got online and around the 2011 election period, Ribadu had 187,845 fans on his page while Buhari had 17,482 fans on his page. Buhari’s fan base then was excusable given that the bulk of his supporters were digital have-nots. A good number of the candidates also had websites which was linked up with their Facebook and Twitter page. Goodluck Jonathan campaigned on www.goodluck.org.ng; Buhari was on www.buhari4change.com; Nuhu Ribadu had www.ribadu2011.com, Dele Momodu of the National Conscience Party was on www.delemomodu.com while Ibrahim Shekarau then governor of Kano state and presidential candidate of the ANPP had his campaign URL at www.ibrahimshekarau.com. Professor Patrick Utomi who later stepped down was on www.utomifornigeria.com
Prior to his party primary, Goodluck Jonathan declared his intention to contest the presidency on the 15th of September, 2010. It was the same day a contestant for the PDP’s presidency party ticket was also declaring in Abuja. Goodluck’s intention was made known on Facebook and the news went viral given the speculations that had trailed his interest in the presidency. The national dailies the next day shared the headline between both candidates. Jonathan Facebook’s declaration was as effective as Babangida’s grand and physical declaration. Reuters was to later say of Babangida whose web address was www.voteibb.org – ‘If online friends are any measure, Babangida faces an uphill struggle. His Facebook page has just over 10,000 fans, compared to more than 195,000 for President Jonathan.’
For those with green memories of the 1993 presidential election or more recently the 1999 election, it is justifiable to visualise how the latter would have played out in social media space. For one, the late Chief MKO Abiola and declared winner of the annulled election would have left no stone in that direction unturned in his political battle against the National Republic Convention candidate Bashir Tofa. Election observation by civil society actors also took on new turn during the 2011 election.
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‘Sola Fagorusi
Sola Fagorusi is a youth development advocate, freelance writer, accomplished debater cum coach. The Obafemi Awolowo University graduate has about 10 years experience in social entrepreneurship which straddles leadership, good governance cum anti-corruption and adolescent reproductive health. The Leap Africa alumnus is also a trained peer educator, a DESPLAY alumnus and co-facilitator. For 2 years now, he has been a technical consultant and lead judge on the Intra-Faith Peace Youth TV Debate Project facilitated by Youngstars Foundation and the British High Commission. To read his full profile, click here.
