Much of the young online support went to Obi, 61, a businessman and former member of the PDP who campaigned on a platform to reform Nigeria’s state institutions, often tainted by corruption. He also said he would officially apologize to the victims of police brutality, a promise that spoke directly to the EndSARS movement.
While the legacy parties turned their attention to traditional media, the Labor Party was backed by popular activists and influencers. Youth organizers used Twitter spaces and hashtags like #ObiDatti2023, #ObidientsAnd #1MillionMarch4PeterObi gather support. They took their online efforts offline and volunteered to go door-to-door to spread the party’s message. Supporters created online challenges such as “talk to someone about Peter Obi” and launched a app to distribute content and campaign messages. The party crowdsourced donationsallowing it to bridge a huge funding gap between the company and the two old parties.
The odds were stacked against Obi’s Labor Party, which received just over 5,000 votes in the last presidential election in 2019. But this year the party’s vote rose to 6.1 million – more than 25 percent of the electorate – putting it in third place, not far behind the PDP’s 6.9 million. The party won six seats in the Senate and three seats in the House of Representatives. In Lagos, the economic center of the country, the candidate defeated the ruling party. It even got the bulk of the vote at the ballot box in the presidential mansion.
“The statement ‘four people are tweeting in a room’ was humiliating,” says Ayomide. “I am happy with how things have turned out. I think we made a statement.”
Since the presidential and senate elections, activists’ online networks have continued to operate, denouncing alleged electoral irregularities and voter suppression and questioning the role of money in politics. Some are trying to crowdsource a database of results from specific polling places in hopes of providing data that could prove irregularities in court. Both leading opposition candidates have alleged electoral fraud and violence during the election.
“Many young people have used social media to advocate for their preferred candidates, and this has resulted in some youth-friendly candidates winning elections and disrupting the political climate,” said Rinu Oduala, a youth activist and founder of Connect Hub, which offers advocacy and support for democracy and against state violence. “And when politicians fail to keep their promises or engage in corrupt practices, we challenge them on social media, scrutinize them and create a culture of accountability.”
The political establishment in Nigeria seems to have grasped the power of the online primaries. The country held gubernatorial elections on the weekend of March 18. In the run-up, the PDP and the ruling APC both stepped up their social media campaigns. The APC Governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, started tweeting more frequently and announced a series of policies apparently designed to win the youth vote, including a promise to reconsider the ban on cryptocurrencies in the country.
The full election results are still coming in. While the APC won the Lagos gubernatorial election by over 762,000 votes, the Labor Party trailed the PDP in second place by 312,000 votes. Preliminary results show that the party has also become a major contender in several states in southeastern Nigeria.
The results have reinforced the idea that the “four people tweeting in a room” are now part of the political mainstream, and that Nigerian politicians cannot, as often have done, dismiss young votes with slogans such as “there are no polling stations online “. .”
“The digital gathering of young Nigerians is a direct challenge to the incompetent leadership, corrupt officials and ruthless policing that has long been the status quo,” said Adebowale Adedayo, a content creator and activist known as Mr. Macaroni, who uses his platform as an influencer to advocate for youth participation. “If the EndSARS protests have not proven that online advocacy translates into real-world action, then the record number of youth contesting the 2023 election cycle will settle any debate.”