After elections, FACEBOOK politicians desert internet
His messages were personal, having a feeling of genuine connection to them, even if some of his fans say they appear not to be written by him. (Ribadu’s Facebook page has 177,199 fans). Ribadu’s frequency on Facebook dropped drastically, with the silence broken by a Sallah message on 31st August at 23:03. Lagos State Governor […]
His messages were personal, having a feeling of genuine connection to them, even if some of his fans say they appear not to be written by him. (Ribadu’s Facebook page has 177,199 fans). Ribadu’s frequency on Facebook dropped drastically, with the silence broken by a Sallah message on 31st August at 23:03.
Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, for instance, has over 5,000 followers on his page. From observations, Fashola greets Lagosians ‘good morning’ and ‘good evening’ on a daily basis while the campaign period lasted. From his page, those greetings have now ceased and no more forthcoming. Most posts and items are about events, with the few interactions mostly a one-way flow.
One of the political actors who utilized the social networking sites optimally while the election lasted, Atiku Abubakar, made his most current post on 29, August 2011 at 10:41 am, commenting and condemning the attack on the UN building and that was after a long silence. The former Vice President has also decreased participation.
Dame Pauline Tallen, former Deputy Governor of Plateau State’s online presence via Facebook can be said to be lukewarm, as attested to by a September 1st post, sympathizing with the Church of Christ in Nigeria over the death of members of its clergies in a car crash. Political activities or interactions are virtually gone.
But one of the more famous Nigerian politicians on Facebook, President Goodluck Jonathan’s page (637,825 fans) appears to be getting fairly regular updates, signed with his initials, GEJ. While Jonathan actually announced his intention to contest the presidential poll via Facebook and made some additional declarations and statements there, subsequently his presence interactions with Nigerians on the platform now has some kind of docile social networking accounts. Most of the contents available depict a one-way information flow (peoples’ messages).
Then Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari, whose campaign team has also been utilizing such platforms, has a page boasting of 17,218 fans, not counting several other thousands on other Buhari-centric pages like the Buhari4Change one. While visitors are frequent and numerous, Buhari’s page appears to not have any major update recently, owing perhaps to his opting out of active politics.
It is however worthy to note that though educated, a lot of the politicians are not internet-savvy. They often employ young whiz kids to help them manage their social networking pages. For example, there was a job boom in that regard during the April general elections. Almost every campaign office, even of the smallest political party, had computer units with a good number of computers and personnel, mostly youth, manning them.
Weekly Trust, speaking to members of the ‘social networking teams,’ gathered that a lot of them who assisted political parties and politicians during the elections have been axed from their jobs, shortly after the elections.
Tunde Makinwa, who worked for one of the presidential aspirants, said the moment the elections were over, the coordinator of the campaign held a meeting with them and told them to stay off work for some time. “He said they would call us when the need arises. Though in all honesty, they paid us all our salaries before easing us off,” he said.
According to Julius Mbanu, a member of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), who is also computer literate and a self-confessed internet buff, “Politicians should know that engaging with voters through social media is a continuous process. The problem is that a lot of the politicians are not the ones managing the platforms themselves. The beauty of social networking is individualism.”
Mr. Innocent Ikechukwu said though he became Facebook friends with President Jonathan, he doesn’t believe comments get to him, because of the President’s tight schedules.
From less than 100,000 internet users in 1999, when the country returned to civilian rule, the International Telecommunications Union estimates some 43.9 million Nigerians now have access to the internet. There are an estimated 1.8 million Nigerians on Facebook.
The sudden rush by Nigerian politicians during the election was not unconnected to the success recorded by the first black president of the United States, Barack Obama. It was widely reported that in 2008, then US Senator, Barack Obama in his campaign adequately utilized social networking media in gaining popularity. His team used 15 different social networks to reach 5 million supporters over the course of the campaign season.