Politics: The social Media candidate

Greetings everyone!

In these modern days, we can't ignore the role of social media in the public lifestyles of a nation, especially when it comes to politics. In some countries, particularly the developing ones, social media may not, for the moment, have a significant and decisive influence in choosing a suitable candidate, but in the long run, it will surely have its way. What do I mean by this? In developing countries, corruption is so deeply rooted that no matter how powerful social media becomes in pushing for the selection of a suitable candidate for a political position, the results or efforts from social media are often rendered irrelevant.

This brings me to a recent event in my country where a particular presidential candidate was labelled a "social media candidate" because he was winning on social media but found it difficult to translate that into real-life victory.

For some years now, social media has been a useful tool in the hands of Nigerian citizens, allowing the masses’ voices to be easily heard. When the government saw how it was exposing their wrongdoings, they banned the usage of Twitter(X), which is one of the major social media apps where opinions can be aired, issues can be reported, and the world at large can be reached instantly.

After the Twitter ban saga and the events that took place during and after, Nigerians saw how effectively social media could be used to positively influence the political landscape, especially with regard to selecting the right candidate for a political position. During the last general election, there was a massive unifying movement on social media to vote out a corrupt ruling party and vote in someone we believed was capable of leading.

The movement was so pronounced that we thought the candidate who was massively campaigned for on social media would win, but hey, politics took its place, and the candidate the masses never wanted ended up winning. How? That's politics at work.

On a normal standard, if the elections had been conducted on a free and fair basis, the masses — represented by the social media voice — would have emerged victorious. But politics will always find its way. Even at that time, the opposing parties and candidates became very scared and troubled by how everyone on social media was campaigning against them.

Is there a future for social media having a say in elections in Nigeria?

The last elections showed just how greatly social media can influence elections positively, especially in the way it made those who would have rigged the elections think twice. They were afraid of being exposed because once social media catches them, it doesn't rest until judgment is passed — even though such judgments are often jeopardized in the end.

Social media, being the voice of the people, helps to publicly reveal which candidate is truly in the hearts of the people. So, when the opposite candidate wins, it becomes clear to everyone that the election was rigged.

I strongly believe that a time will come when social media will have a major influence on the electoral system in a country like mine. Even the electoral bodies will become too scared to rig elections because any slight mistake will expose them to the world via social media, and they will be prosecuted. However, something like this can only become a reality when the governmental system becomes solid and upright.

Thanks for reading.

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