By Iyke Obi Durumba
Since Barack Obama demonstrated the electoral value of social media in his historic 2008 election, that huge all-comers forum which the internet facilitates has become an undeniable factor in not just influencing perception but also in mobilizing votes to win elections.
The effect of social media has been acknowledged as a campaign gamechanger in the 2015 elections in Nigeria. Apart from being a sure-fire means of mobilizing support for candidates, the way the former President Jonathan was boxed into a defensive corner by the unrelenting barrage from social media is fit for a book by itself. Social media users will acknowledge a certain acrimonious build up to that election and this has become an unfortunate precedent in the use of social media for political campaigns.
In fact, the image which Goodluck Jonathan acquired in the run-up to the elections is nearly completely attributable to a bitter and sustained propaganda blitzkrieg unleashed on his administration from social media by those who wanted him out at all cost. Besides the fortuitous political re-alignments which worked against the former President, the opposition at that time also managed to put together one of the most ferocious social media teams that saw the Jonathan government constantly forced into the defensive corner and gasping for breath. Accused of every possible crime against humanity, real and imagined, that administration lost the narrative very early in its life (around the time of the removal of fuel subsidy in January 2012) and had to keep defending one allegation or the other, most of which originated on social media. This happened in such a manner that even the best policies and actions of that administration were deliberately rubbished by APC (and their social media supporters) in a connivance to make sure that the narrative against that government remained negative thus justifying their message of change.
Reuben Abati, then Presidential Spokesman, was coping with a genre of criticism then unknown to public discourse in the Nigerian narrative – extremely bitter, inciting, implacable and painfully for that administration, sometimes very on-point. The unrelenting stream of discontent directed at government by angry Nigerians on social media was so red-hot that Abati labelled them ‘collective children of anger’.
However, the abuse of the social media space was not one-sided. Former presidential aide Reno Omokri was also exposed as the ‘Wendel Simlin’ who attempted to link former CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi with terrorist group Boko Haram at a time that personality was involved in a feud with the FG. The poison this generated still lingers online. There were also diverse attempts by supporters of the PDP government to link Buhari with Boko Haram sponsorship and all these created a most ugly experience on Nigerian social media space.
The Boko Haram war and the initially lackadaisical approach of the Jonathan administration fuelled all manner of conspiracy theories crafted to suit whichever sympathies the story-teller was advancing. And again, the ‘freedom’ which social media affords was optimized to spin tales which contributed to the obnoxious campaign precedent of vilifying people to score political points.
In 2014/2015, social media held Goodluck Jonathan personally responsible for the many ills which happened in that administration. The then opposition APC similarly held the former President personally accountable for nearly everything that went wrong. He was made to appear as the singular personification of Nigeria’s problems and the opposition made the most of holding him up as such. The cliché ‘everything rises and falls on leadership’ and ‘fish starts to rot from the head’ were the usual entry points on highly emotional social media articles which were often syndicated on traditional print media. This precedent is being followed today even though the players have switched sides. The Buhari supporters no longer believe the President must be held responsible while other Nigerians insist on same.
One good thing about social media is that users leave easily-traceable electronic footprints that makes for easy verification and cross-referencing of one’s current opinion against one’s past. Since hypocrisy ordinarily ought to negate the persuasive power of an opinion, credibility on social media has come to depend on consistency of perspective. For instance, you cannot condemn corruption in the past only to condone it today; you cannot hold a former President responsible for the loss of lives in the past only to attempt to explain same away in another President. That is patently hypocritical and social media would call you out.
It is in this light that the arrest of many social media users on El-Rufai’s orders over perceived indiscretions is viewed online with a lot of derisive laughter considering what the governor did with social media before his election. Finding ample latitude in the Jonathan administration’s liberal outlook on right to dissent, El-Rufai raised hell on social media between 2011 and 2015. The Kaduna state governor may well be acting within the ambit of the law today but any profession of equity and appeal to social conscience would ring hollow when his past social media footprints are read. Today he has power and would use it ruthlessly but social media never forgets.
Another social media flashback is triggered by the recent Police protection given to minority members of some state Houses of Assembly like Benue and recently Akwa Ibom to carry out laughable attempts at impeachment of their Speakers. In 2014, former President Jonathan was personally held responsible for the shenanigans in Rivers state when 5 lawmakers led by Evans Bipi attempted to remove the Speaker. At that time, social media was hot! Even traditional media fed off the outpouring of anti-Jonathan sentiments which social media generated. Alas, today APC and its supporters are doing everything possible to isolate President Buhari from responsibility in the unconstitutional role the Police is playing in those incidents. The fact that the Police IG is still answerable to the President seems lost on these social media defenders.
The confrontational posture in the 2015 campaigns on social media unfortunately laid the foundation for engagements going forward. Twitter became combative and Facebook took on the hue of a battlefield. Lies, distortions, trolling and personal insults became currency of exchange and even personal relationships were ruined in the causticity of social media engagements.
The precedence set by the narratives of the past has come to haunt the conversations of the present. Social media is made of human beings whose memories are remarkably boosted by the click of a google button.
The fight against fake news might have had more traction today if perhaps, the opposition in the past had played slightly more principled politics at the time with the foreknowledge that they would occupy office someday. There would have been a deeper public buy-in if they had demonstrated more responsibility in times past.
However, President Buhari’s recent call on his supporters not to beg, lie or insult as they campaign for him is most welcome. Speaking through his legislative aide Ita Enang, the President is quoted to have promised to run an issue-based campaign. If this had been the mindset pre-2015, perhaps the toxic precedent which the 2015 campaigns set would have been avoided but it is never too late to make a fresh start.
If sanity must dictate future social media discourse, all candidates in the coming elections must show a clear unmistakeable intolerance for falsehood and slander for their opponents. While it is true that they may not have control over all their supporters, their utterances and body language can impact on the online behaviour of their fans.
If indeed the interest of Nigeria is the overriding motive, the bitter recriminations, lies and false constructs on social media will have no place in the political conversion needed to move the country forward.
