Even though Nigeria’s 2015 General Elections are several weeks away, the polity is heating up online as loyalists of both major candidates – Goodluck Jonathan (PDP) and Mohammadu Buhari (APC) are engaging one another in fierce arguments on social media.
Unlike 2011 when several citizens did not freely and openly declare their support for any candidate, Nigerians of all ages including religion, ethnic group and professions are becoming vocal about their preferred candidates.
On Nairaland, one of Africa’s most visited websites, it has become a familiar occurrence to see almost every conversation to end up as a political battlefield. If a post is on a laudable project completed by the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, the president’s will post GEJ till 2019 as comments but if the thread is on the shortcomings of the administration, for instance in the area of insecurity, supporters of the opposition party will repeatedly post Sai Buhari as comments.
The situation is similar on Facebook and Twitter, including Instagram. And as the elections approach, it is expected that more Nigerians, including the celebrities to make known their political affiliations and unveil their preferred candidates. The reason for this development could be connected to the numerous national issues that trended on social media – issues such as national security (Boko Haram speficially), corruption, economy and several others remain in the purview of the general public and are trending on social media.
The emergence of the presidential candidate of the opposition party on social media gave a much clearer indication to the big roles that social media will play — and already playing. But the impacts on the actual voting exercise would only be accessed after the elections when the online community would be able to ascertain whether trending on Twitter has any impact on who wins at the polling stations.
