"FROM ONLINE TO OFFLINE": THE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA,THE #OBIDIENT MOVEMENT, AND THE RISE OF PEOPLES POWER.
Abstract
This paper investigated how (social) media have, historically, facilitated change and transformation in societies. It appraised the use of X (formerly Twitter) by Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2023 Presidential Elections in Nigeria. It argued that although Peter Obi (one of the contestants in the Presidential elections) did not win the elections, he nonetheless took the Nigerian political scene by storm, using X to transmit messages that resonated with the masses of the Nigerian public. A large cohort of Nigerian youths connected with the #Obidient Movement in a way never seen in the annals of
Nigeria's electoral contestations. In analysing the 2023 Presidential elections in Nigeria and the role of the online #Obidient Movement in the Presidential elections, the paper discussed the history of some social movements in Iran (1979), The Philippines (1986 & 2001), Barack Obama's Movement in America's Presidential Elections (2008), The Arab Spring (2011), and the #EndSARS protest of 2020. The paper contended that the successes recorded by these movements were largely due to the (social) media tools deployed by young supporters.
Indeed, social media platforms are shaping and changing political governance in the contemporary world. This research is premised on the Frustration-Aggression theory. It also adopted a textual analysis design of X tweets to determine the types of content produced by the three Presidential candidates. The research looked at the similarities between Obi and Obama and how they connected with their countries' young people. One of the key findings of this study is that social media are essential to the enterprise of social and democratic governance today. It concluded that the messages the candidates presented and the electronic tools used struck a chord with the voters who began their activism online but later moved offline to cast their votes.
