Social Media: Spreading Culture & Hate

Social media is the new way to communicate.  It seems as if everyone is tweeting and has an account on Facebook.

Twitter, Facebook and other social network sites are currently transforming and sustaining the quest for social change in the country.

Like other broadcast media, social media networks are tools for socialization. They create new opportunities for political conversation and civic action.

Social media work because messages pass over networks of trust and reciprocity, resonating with friends and family.

But they are also aiding and abetting religious violence and insurgency particularly in the northern part of Nigeria by spreading furies and propagandas.

Social media are the new weapons of war as belligerent politicians and religionists massively roll out the tools to undermine all efforts at promoting peace.

For instance, in Kaduna, gory and horrific photos of victims of suicide bombings and reprisal attacks being shared through Twitter, Facebook and others has continued to make the state ungovernable.

Recall also that as Nigeria boiled in January during the nationwide strike and public demonstrations in response to removal of subsidy on Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS), many protesters took their rage to the internet and the social media.

Social media played a profound role in recruiting and spreading calls for action that contributed to the success of the strike.

During the fuel hike protests, some initial online activities by some civil rights activists’ triggered chains of messages reaching huge numbers of people who immediately mobilized to protest the removal even before labour formally flagged off the strike and protests.

Either deliberately or by sheer ignorance, the government of the day has failed to recognize the power of the social media.

It is so powerful that as the country’s clumsy leaders are sleeping, the virtual world is aggressively organizing and inspiring a revolution.

Today, from North to South and East to West, arguments on social media are swinging far left.

And in the absence of good leadership, a crop of bloggers are charting the course for Nigerians dissatisfied with years of mismanagement and neglect by successive governments.

The rise and rise of social media is buoyed by the country’s growing online audience, said to be the largest in Africa.

Substantial numbers of the mobile phone users have access to internet through their mobile devices which helped in the sharing of information on social media.

Nigeria government is helpless at the moment and is not even using the good side of this double edged sword.

To use this tool, the government must first of all provide good governance. There are no two meanings of good governance. It is putting square peg in a square hole.

Achieving good governance requires the understanding and participation of every member of the society.

The media, their roles, channels and content, are considered powerful enough to make this achievement a reality.