by Emma Chidiogo

Recently joining the club of Nigerian politicians who are social media friendly, is the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Muazu.

Muazu joined Twitter (@Muazuaa) on the 23rd of May, 2014. In his first tweet, he updated “I am the National Chairman of the #PeoplesDemocraticParty Twub. For live tweets, photos, videos and more, check out http://twubs.com/PeoplesDemocraticParty.”

The National Chairman has since then updated 5 photos, all of which are that of President Goodluck Jonathan – solidifying the Party’s unfailing support for him. One of his tweets with a photo, read; “Today: it was a unanimous verdict for President Jonathan to seek Re-election”.

Is Muazuaa’s decision to join Twitter another move to drive more campaign for the president? Well, the answer cannot be too faraway after the success of President Barrack Obama with social media in his 2008 and 2012 election campaigns.

In recent times, social media has completely transformed the way citizens interact with those responsible for the well being of a nation. U.S president, Barrack Obama is a leading example.

In 2008, Obama Presidential campaign made history. As he was the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy. He sent out voting reminders on Twitter and interacting with people on Facebook. This made citizens feel closer to him than any other candidate. It wasn’t rocket science when he made history as the first African American to be elected president.

After the 2008 success, Obama took the 2012 campaign to another level, outwitting fellow contender Mitt Romney who had also realised the importance of Social media in presidential campaigns. His tweet on 6 November 2012, became the second most retweeted update in twitter history with over 765,000 RTs.

Obama changed politicosphere, and suddenly politics and social media became an inseparable couple. So many other politicians across the world began to see its need.

In 2010, two years after Obama’s success with social media, Goodluck Jonathan assumed office as the president of Nigeria on May 6. Barely weeks after assuming office, he created a Facebook account on June 28.

His first update; “Today, in fulfillment of the promise I made at the 26th convocation of the University of Port Harcourt on Saturday, 15 May 2010, I have created a Facebook fan page to interact with Nigerians” garnered over 1200likes and 2100 comments. Today he has over 1,600 000 likes on his page.

Below is a list of some politicians who use social media;

-Former Minister of the federal Capital Territory, Nasir El-Rufai (@elrufai) joined twitter on 26th February 2009 – 353 000+ followers

-Nuhu Ribadu (@NuhuRibadu) – December 2009 – 180 000+ followers
-Pat Utomi (@UtomiPat), November 2011 – 127 000+ followers

-Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola (@tundefashola – Verified) joined in June 2010 – 255 000+ followers

-Atiku Abubakar (@Atiku – Verified) followed suit on September 11, 2010 – 162 000+

-Femi Fani-Kayode (@realffk) joined in June 2012 – 72 000+

-Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi (@Kfayemi – Verified), joined in April 2009 – 46 000+

-Presidential’s Senior Special Assistant Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe (@Doyinokupe), joined 6 August 2012 – 19 000+

In 2012, Reuben Abati, presidential Spokesman, joined twitter (@Abati1990 – 143 000+). He has since then used the account as a medium of presenting the best possible image of the President to the Nigerian populace – Nigerian’s shouldn’t expect anything less from the presidency’s spokesperson.

Whether or not Muazu’s arrival on twitter is geared towards social media campaign for Jonathan, it is a good thing that our politicians are beginning to see the need to be ‘closer’ to the masses, as social media presents that platform.