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Vice presidential candidate of the Labour party in the 2023 elections, Datti Baba-Ahmed has expressed conviction that the party’s massive social media support will translate into actual votes in the 2023 elections.
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He told Channels TV this week that those who use social media will vote in the 2023 presidential election dispelling the notion that what some experts have described as “enthusiasm factor” would not necessarily translate to actual votes.
“Social media is going to vote,” Baba-Ahmed, founder and Pro-chancellor of Baze University.
His words: “Go and start looking at the bookings of major European airlines into Nigeria, not just during Christmas time; funny enough, this time after Christmas time; late January to the third week of February, you will see that they are getting full.
“I am into the business of data and statistics and I decided to particularly look at that. This tells you that social media is going to vote. Social media, even if they’re in Canada, even if they’re in Antarctica; one person is there and he mobilises 100,000 people to go out and vote, it has succeeded. But we are not scared.
“The bank balance of any big politician is starting to be irrelevant. Those of us who sweated for the little that we have, we’re spending it very wisely and very carefully. Those of them who made it from government, who just open the coffers and bring it out, they’ll continue to splash it and it will continue to mean less and less till the election hour.”
Social media is now considered a powerful tool to sway voters; build or destroy opponents.
Outcome of 2023 elections will be influenced by social media
Policy and leadership expert, Dakuku Peterside, wrote recently: “Social media is a very competitive tool. Millions of political aspirants will jostle for the attention of the same audience. This poses the challenge of creative online crowdsourcing and increases the power of social media influencers. To a considerable extent, the outcome of the 2023 elections may be influenced majorly by social media.”
“The younger generation practically lives on the social media. Political consciousness among Nigerian youths has risen to an all-time-high. The agenda won hands down. The social media role has ensured freedom from censorship, arbitrary attack, interference, free access to necessary information and a pluralism of voices and not just state controlled media,” Adeyemi Oluwatosin Dotun noted in a recent article on ‘the Role of social media in 2023 elections.’
The Nigerian election was “decided, dominated and directed by social media,” said former ICFJ Knight Fellow Sunday Dare to the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) just after the 2015 election when he was the chief of staff to the national leader of the All Progress Congress. Dare is now Nigeria’s Sports Minister.
It is certain that a greater percentage of voters’ behaviours and voting pattern will be determined by the outcome of political posts on social media.
