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The Role Of Electronic Media/internet On Democratic Consolidation In Nigeria
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1.2 Statement of the Problem
The use of social media as a
formidable force for social engineering and political electioneering has
continued to grow. The technology is participatory, interactive and
cost-effective. This has made it the medium of the moment as far as
political communication and participation are concerned. Nigeria had her
first true test of social media use for political participation during
the 2011 general elections. Many positive results were recorded. For
instance, both the local and foreign observers rated the election as the
best in the fourteen year history of unbroken democracy in the country.
However,
a Human Rights Watch report of April 18, 2011 says that although the
April elections were heralded as among the fairest in Nigeria’s history,
they also were among the bloodiest. The reports further show that a
total of not less than 800 persons were killed, more than 65,000 others
displaced and over 350 churches either burnt or destroyed in the
violence that precipitated the announcement of the 2011 general
elections results in the northern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno,
Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara by
Muslim rioters.
Adeyanju and Haruna (2011) believe that social media
played a huge role in instigating and fuelling the violence. They argue
that during the period, many Facebook pages were awash with false
rumours and gossips that added to hitting up the polity and creating
unnecessary tensions.
The GSM short message service (SMS) was used to
spread false election results that differ from what INEC eventually
announced. This made electorates believe that their votes did not count
and that they were massively rigged. There was what Okoro and Adibe
(2013) refer to as “social media war†on the various social media
platforms, making use of all kinds of abusive languages, all manner of
attacks and counter attacks among members and supporters of various
opposition parties and groups. Several insulting and inciting messages
flourished on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, BBM, blogs or even text
messages. These culminated in the violence and tensions witnessed
before, during and after the elections in many parts of the country,
with some states ordering non-indigenes to leave.
Despite the global
acknowledgement of social media as an instrument of social, political
and economic cohesion, it nearly threatened the progress of Nigeria’s
nascent democracy. Experts decried the wrong application of the social
media platforms among users before, during and after 2015 presidential
election in Nigeria.
Hence one begins to wonder if electronic media
is consolidating Nigerian democracy or having a retrogressive effect on
it. Hence, this research project investigated the role of electronic
media/internet on democratic consolidation in Nigeria with a particular
reference to the 2011 general elections.
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