By 
By Nwakaego Alajemba
A social media war is in the offing between Nigeria’s two leading political contenders: the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress (APC).
The PDP has promised an all-out social media against the APC at a recently held retreat in Katsina, home state of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The one-day retreat with the theme: ‘Identifying Social Media Role and Influence Ahead of 2019: A focus on PDP Social Media Handlers’ is designed round weaving and deploying strategies to sway public opinions against the ruling APC.
Organised by the Northwest Social media arm of the PDP, participants were drilled on using social media to effectively mobilize young people for the PDP. Hon. Salisu Yusuf Majigiri, the Katsina state chairman of the party, said the PDP has designed plans to “flood the Internet with the failings of the APC led-government.”
Majigiri said the war will be strong online as it will be in physical spaces. His words: “PDP campaign for 2019 would be little if our youths can manage social media effectively.”
He added: “[We will] expose their faults and mistakes and let them know that what they are doing is against the constitution of our great country. Talk about the fall of the naira and unemployment that has become the order of the day in Nigeria under APC administration.
“APC leaders during their campaigns in 2015 promised to fix Nigeria within one year. Almost four years now, they have not done anything rather things are getting worse every day.”
Since 2015, Nigeria politics has increasingly found the internet as a veritable space for mass mobilization. The social media space was effectively used by the APC against the PDP in the 2015 elections. That space is still largely dominated by the APC in government.
