Social media

The Role Of Social Media In Nation Building March 21, 2018 Prime Time News Comment(0) Facebook 2 Twitter 0 Google+0 LinkedIn0 WhatsApp Viber Pinterest0 2 Shares The Role of Social Media in Nation Building By Abbas Yushau Yusuf No doubt the coming of social media has shaped the nature of governance in Nigeria, Nigerians are wonderful creatures, as the countries democracy is maturing , so also the discourse of governance in the country’s cyberspace, Now Universities like my almamater Bayero University have created degree programmes on Social Media, it signifies that social media will never be divorced from the debate concerning how people are ruled by their leaders. There have been calls for social media regulations by the country’s political lords but their calls are always receiving stiff opposition from the electorate. 2015 electoral success by the Nigerian opposition party was consolidated by the social media as situation rooms documented authentic results which prevented alleged rigging by former Africa’s biggest political party. For example in Kano state, Radio stations are giving room for political opponents to display their ideas so also social media platforms. With the effort by media professionals to enlighten social media users to avoid spreading fake news, Its the role of media practitioners on social media platforms to set agenda and deliberate on the dangers of spreading Fake news, with data available and the highest bidder get megabites depending on what he owns, Social media can never be regulated. One can not blame Nigerians for expressing divergent views on social media platforms, that makes them to quench their frustration on how they are governed by Governments at all levels. When Traditional Media sets agenda ,Social Media platforms are also setting agenda depending on which Topic is trending. Nigerians become more engaged on Social Media platforms after they threw away an incumbent government seeking for a second chance. Traditional Media is still playing a significant role in information dessimination but that did not give room for hegemony ,where social media can counter hidden facts by the mainstream media. I opined that social media users in Nigeria should not only dominate discussion on governance but critical issues should also be given serious attention, among which should be, Poverty, Patriotism, Scourge of young kids roaming the streets of the North, drug abuse ,prostitution and other social problems. How we detest corruption in this country is a serious topic trending on social media platforms , at each step of our nations wellbeing corruption is appearing in a manner chameleon is metamorphosing to different colours. To cut the story short and cite a Development scholar Micheal Todaro who asserts that ” Development is the reorientation and reorganisation of the entire economic and societal structure” Social media can play a better role in realising Micheal Todaros definition. Mischief in online Journalism fetches alot for Journalist mischief makers ,but citizen journalists who are on social media platforms in Nigeria are impacting seriously in the countries governance as we are about to clock 20 years of Democracy. Abbas Yushau Yusuf writes from Kano