One of the biggest catalysts for social change in the 2015 elections was the widespread embrace of social media. After spurning social media and dismissing it as a frivolous pasttime, politicians convinced by their media teams created social media presences and began to aggressively market themselves to the demographic that was least likely to vote, but most likely to influence the voting habits of others through their viral conversations.

Social media wasn’t anything new. Facebook first gained traction in the country in 2006, and by 2010, most active social media platforms had vibrant Nigerian communities. But Whatsapp and Instagram were the tools that really changed the game and made the ruling class take notice. By 2015, the real faux pas was not having a digital presence as public personality, especially if you were contesting for the 2015 Presidential elections. The conversation had literally moved from the streets to the social media.

Several political parties and their candidates made it their campaign zone as political aspirants submitted themselves to tweet chats, live Facebook interview among others. Despite the myriad of political aspirants that made the social media their second home, three individuals were able to make their presence felt which are President Buhari, former President Goodluck Jonathan, and Professor Remi Sonnaiya.

As expected, President Muhammadu Buhari won the election and that changed the influence of the Nigerian social media, this influence has now been misconstrued by the political class as a form of threat to their continued hold on the state of the nation. The series of harassment that has been meted out to Nigerians by members of the political class has shown their hypocrisy.

The travails of the founder of Chocolate City records Mr Audu Maikori in the hands of the Kaduna State Governor Mallam Nasir El-Rufai readily comes to mind. The state Governor wasn’t pleased with the reporting of the label executive on the southern Kaduna killings and he was arrested and detained on the instructions of the Kaduna State Government.

Bearing in mind that Maikori apologized for some inaccurate reportage he made, that didn’t stop the state Governor from humiliating him. The plight of Maikori is one out of many Nigerians that have experienced harassment based on their activities on the social media and its ironical for a government that came to power through the influence of the social media to see it as a threat.

This surely has to stop.