The Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council, Comrade Michael Ikeogwu, has told politicians and relevant stakeholders the best way to pass information concerning the 2023 elections to gullible citizens.
Ikeogwu suggested only professional media practitioners do the job help to ensure that the right information is passed to gullible social media consumers.
He stated this while delivering a paper at the 2022 Young Lawyers Symposium held at the NBA Asaba Bar Center, on Thursday, 8 December 2022.
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Speaking in the lecture titled “Democracy and the Electoral Act: The Impact of Social Media on Electioneering Process In Nigeria,” Ikeogwu revealed that social media consumers must carry out fact-checking of every piece of information to verify the source and authenticity of information they read on the social media so as not to be fed with fake electioneering reports.
He said there was no doubt that the coming of smartphones, tablets, and computers have altered the media space which has made way for a major shift from what the world was known for to an innovation that has made anyone with a smartphone connected to the Internet a broadcaster or a reporter on the platform of the new media as the case may be.
He disclosed in his paper that Statistics of Social Media Users in Nigeria according to the report has an estimated population of 211,400,708. I54,301,195 persons are connected to the Internet as of 31 December 2021 while a total of 31, 860,000 persons are Facebook subscribers as of 30 April 2022, making Nigeria the second-ranking Facebook subscriber in Africa after Egypt with a population of 105,530,371 persons with 51,741,493 Facebook subscribers.
According to him, the above development has made it easy to read fake news from social media.
Ikeogwu argued that:
“There is no gainsaying the fact that the social media has gradually graduated into playing an important role in electioneering process not only in Nigeria but the world at large.”
Mrs Nwaubani Ugochi (red top), Delta INEC PRO, and Comrade Michael Ikeogwu (NUJ Chairman in Delta State said that:
“Findings shows that the use of the social media has grossly affected the participation of individuals in the day to day political process. As a developing country, Nigeria must embrace this platform in other to ensure greater participation of her populace in government activities.”
The Delta State No 1 journalist also spoke on the advantages and disadvantages of social media in electioneering.
On that, he said the increasing awareness of the use of social media has raised concerns among Nigerian citizens, particularly the youths who have attracted the curiosity and interest of critical stakeholders.
He said:
“Apart from known bloggers who have been engaged to do the bidding of their pay masters, unsolicited bloggers have also joined the vanguard of posting on social media to promote the candidate of their choice.
“More than two thousand bloggers, Facebook users and social media influencers have been drafted into media committees of different political parties in Delta State alone. Only the People’s Democratic (PDP) has over six hundred persons in its media and publicity committee while the All Progressives Congress (APC) has over 300 persons in her media committee. This trend has never been witnessed in the political history of the state.
“Both the legally appointed and citizens now use social media platforms to give daily reports and updates regarding election circumstances in their area. Some for the interest of their choice candidates, may stay on social media for a long time monitoring events of their opponents and also responding as the case may be.
“No doubt the ongoing campaigns across the length and breadth of the states in the country have had a very remarkable presence on social media.
“Some paid social media tigers have formed the habit of tagging along with perceived opponents with a view to finding faults and mistakes of the opposition which they will capitalize to discredit their opponent.”
While commending the enviable group of young and vibrant lawyers led by U.A.J. Aki Esq and his executive for organizing such educating program, Ikeogwu said from the forgoing, the use of social media has come to stay considering the high network of its users.
He added that it was a reality that every individual must embrace or risk not doing so and remain technologically redundant.
