Written on the 23rd of February, 2019 the initial date slated for the presidential and Senatorial elections in the Nigerian 2019 General Elections Schedule, targeted at enunciating the role social media play in contemporary politics and its rivalry game.
As I looked at how election period was approaching. I observed a lot of lampooning and campaign of calumny made easy by social media and its subsidiary platforms which facilitate, fast-track and showcase diverse intentions cum interests. Carolyn Giordano and Christine Giordano. (2011), in Journal of Allied health termed "Health professions students' use of social media", states from their study of 644 fresh students and 413 graduating students that individuals were using social media to present themselves, articulate their networks and establish or maintain connections with others, particularly citing that students prefer the use of online social media as their primary source of information with majority using Facebook and few using Twitter, LinkedIn or other social media sites. With my interest in technological innovation, history, oldies and classical inventions, I can make bold to say as much as there is rapid development and constant improvement in the technology scene, and to the millennial kids and emerging generations, it seems to them that all the technological sphere and initiatives are new. But looking at it critically, nothing is new in our spatial world except an upgrade of past inventions and innovations.
More importantly, I can categorically say, that social media is one of new initiatives particularly emergent in this millennium which has had its genesis in the prior decades but has come to stay and even affect and determine our lives in this millennium. However, access to internet has fostered the use of social media, but looking at it clearly, computer was invented in the 1940s, first internet initiative was in the 1960s and gained momentum in the late 70s when only successful companies in the first world countries used it as means of communication to enhance efficiency and productivity at workplace, then IRC, Internet Relayed Chats improved in organisations by early 1980s and by the 1990s people started having access to computers (PCs ), even as appliances at home which saw a change in the information and communication technology, and brought about a revolution in media world and in the subsequent years.
Factually, Six-degrees is said to be the first and which pioneered social media prior to, and at the verge of this millennial dispensation, and it was launched in 1997, the first blogging site and livejournal was initiated in 1999, then Friendster the next and more successful social medium came in 2002 but were used and accessed by the developed world cum nations, and particularly by the rich, the workers and mostly in the US. Followed were social networking sites like LinkedIn and MySpace in 2003, with emergence of Facebook in 2004, Youtube commenced in 2005 while Twitter in 2006, and all gained momentary popularity globally, lots are presently existing as new generation of social media which came into operation especially at the beginning of the millennial's second decade and more to emerge. Sequentially, we are almost at the end of the second decade into the millennium, people have been said to attempt suicide in America just because they lost followers and are not getting likes as they used to on their personal profiles.
In actual fact, since the inception of social media, governments, parties, officials and some organisations have created portfolios that oversee social media follow-up, maintenance, posts and interaction cum updates. With the detrimental shift in general but presidential and Senate election slated for February 16th 2019, forfeiting the painstaking efforts made by some people towards the election, a lot of people came out via same social media to castigate the move and to bemoan the display of inadequacy by the Nigerian electoral umpire, INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission). Sequel to this, I noticed how social media has been employed to lampoon opponents, candidates and parties especially by the big players PDP (People's Democratic Party) and APC (All Progressive Congress) cohorts cum stooges with the attempts at jeopardizing each other's interests in the field of play. Actually, politically and as someone with social justice perspective and Welfare Economics background, I am of the view that it is only when the Nigerian political sphere attains the level of American political pedestal where the two parties have equal strength and opportunity in the field of play that our parties and politicians will actually function efficiently and relatively in their various capacities, and that is what is obtainable in Nigeria as opposed to the status quo prior to 2015 from 1999 when only a party seemed to be the biggest player with no strong or formidable opponent.
Surprisingly, calumny that used to take time to reach the grassroots, electorates, populace and the polity, now takes few minutes to reach the world, through retweet or sharing on social media and even via communication apps on phones especially Whatsapp. What takes fliers or politically-engendered magazines or newspapers weeks to pass across now takes social media minutes. So many but edited videos, captions, pictures which ordinarily would not have had their ways on our known one-way media channel, that is the television and radio now find their ways easily on social media to actually destroy opponents and rivals in a derogatory manner. However masterminded, they also use it to showcase their achievements in office to seek for votes. Naheed Eltantawy and Julie B. West (2011), in their article in the International Journal of Communication tagged "Social media in the Egyptian revolution: reconsidering resource mobilization theory" opine that social media play an important role in the impact of social movements, particularly in 2011 Egyptian revolution where it was used as an instrument in the success of anti-governments protests that led to the usurping and consequent resignation of the country's dictatorial leader.
Well not to name it all, today the 23rd February 2019, as the stipulated day for the presidential cum senatorial elections postponed from last week the 16th, I actually await a free and fair election and with the "shoot at sight" mandate from the presidency issued against any political manipulator who employs the use of thugs and hoodlums to tamper with ballot boxes, I hope that will curb election manipulations and racketeering, although, it is an attempt to array the sincerity of the sitting president. Therefore, as a diaspora, I assume election posts and polling units would be manned by fully armed police cum combatant officers. Well, I (we) await the results of the elections, and I hope INEC will conclude collations early, would announce results on time and declare the winners in earnest. As we await the aftermath of this day's election and the coming elections, even as the world observes Nigeria's general election 2019. God help and bless Nigeria.
An article written for a polity void of destructive but constructive political structure and rivalry.
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