Brazilian Journal of African Studies

e-ISSN 2448-3923 | ISSN 2448-3915 | v.2, n.4 | p.198-209 | Jul./Dec. 2017

NEW MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY IN

NIGERIA: AN APPRAISAL OF THE
OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS IN THE
TERRAIN
Dauda Ishaya Suntai1
Tordue Simon Targema2

Introduction
The advent of the new media has, no doubt, revolutionized the
process of political communication and expanded the frontiers of political
participation. This is not far from the fact that the internet provides a
forum for continuous interaction between the masses and the government.
McQuail (2005) articulates this point when he notes that: the new media has
been widely hailed as a potential way of escape from the top-down politics of
mass democracies in which tightly organized political parties make policies
unilaterally and mobilize support behind them with minimal negotiation
and grassroots input. They provide the means for highly differentiated
political information and ideas almost unlimited access in theory to all
voices, and much feedback and negotiation between leaders and followers.
One vital potential of the new media, with its divergent means of
information dissemination is that it has increased the volume of information
at the disposal of the masses, with unlimited freedom such that the audience
equally create and share content to other subscribers with ease. The fact
that information is power has, thus, enabled the new media to empower
the masses to participate actively in the process of governance. Democracy,
which entails public participation in the process of governance, benefits
immensely from this new revolution in the process of communication
1 Department of Languages and Literary Studies, Taraba State University, Jalingo, Nigeria.
E-mail: suntaid@yahoo.com.
2 Department of Mass Communication, Taraba State University, Jalingo, Nigeria. E-mail:
torduesimon@gmail.com.

198
 Dauda Ishaya Suntai, Tordue Simon Targema

(Suntai and Targema 2015).

Nigeria, which has been exposed to authoritarian military rules
shortly after the colonial era receives this revolution with a big sigh of relief,
as the authoritarian regimes left no stone unturned in the bid to muzzle
the press and firmly spread the tentacles of their dictatorship and tyranny
devoid of public criticisms and antagonism. With the return to democratic
rule, and recent adaptation of the new media platforms, which are trending,
the scope of political participation and criticisms has been widened.
Elsewhere, the Arab Spring is a testimony to the power of the new
media in extending the frontiers of democracy, as social networking sites
dominated the communication activities that trailed the revolution and
resistance of oppressive rule in the region. The wave of revolutions that
were social media driven saw oppressive leaders, such as Hosni Mubarak
of Egypt, Ben Ali of Tunisia among others, having social media to blame
for their public rejection and subsequent dethronement, after securely
monitoring the mainstream media. Hanan (2013, 2), thus, describes the
role of the new media in the revolutions as follows:
much have already been said about the Arab spring but what is already
clear, from the current body of work being produced, is that it was the
use of social media that acted as a catalyst for change in an already
unpredictable environment. The use and availability of social media
easily created connections between prominent thought leaders/activists
and ordinary citizens, rapidly expanding the network of people willing to
take action.

Elegbede (2015) asserts that nothing big and relevant happens in

Africa today without the influence of the social media. While the assertion
may not be absolutely correct, we are reminded of a series of events that have
unfolded, mainly through social media platforms across political, health
and commercial development landscape of the continent. The bathing with
and drinking salt episode as an immunity against Ebola disseminated on
social media, which received massive compliance among Nigerians, is still
fresh in our memory.
The 2015 general elections in Nigeria present another scenario where
the entire gamut of social media was deployed to entrench the principles of
democracy through what appeared to be relatively free and fair elections.
According to Oseni (2015), starting from the period of the campaign, through
voting to the collation of results and subsequent declaration of winners by
INEC, social media were formidable forces in keeping the masses informed.
Two years into the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari, who
emerged victorious during the polls, we can attest to the formidable role the
new media plays in the process of governance.

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New media and democracy in Nigeria: an appraisal of the opportunities and threats in
the terrain

This study derives its justification from this scenario. Anchored

on the Social Responsibility Theory, it explores the contribution of the new
media in the entrenchment of democracy in the country, and critically
assesses issues and matters arising with the adaptation of the platform by
both the government and the masses.

New Media and Democracy: A Conceptual Discussion

The proliferation of new media platforms in Nigeria recently has
attracted the attention of researchers to investigate the rippling effects in
several fields such as the economy, education, politics and health among
others. In all of these fields, research evidence has demonstrated that the
platforms have proved effective in increasing access to vital information
that helps people to make informed decisions (Alexander, Ifeanyi and
Martin 2016). Basically, the scope of new media (as used in this study) is
broad, and encapsulates platforms such as online newspapers, social media
and blogs, all of which are domiciled on the internet. Of all these, social
media play leading role in filling the hitherto existing information gap, as it
comfortably houses the other new media platforms on its various channels.
Social media are online communication media that use web
based technologies which enable users to download, upload, interact and
collaborate with one another regardless of distance and time. Social media
as a concept is the use of technology combined with social interaction to
create and co-create value (Olise 2014). It is thus a shift in how people
discover, read and share news, information and content which may be text,
audio, video or graphics.
Media scholars argue that social media involve a fusion of
sociology and technology to transform the process of communication from
monologue to dialogue or better still, to an interactive process. Some of the
common social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Flicker,
2go, YouTube, Instagram, and Google+ among others. These relatively new
media gain popularity in Nigeria, in spite of her technological backwardness,
helping to accomplish complex political tasks across the country.
According to Nwabueze (2014), Nigeria has registered some level of
presence in the internet-based community. There are numerous weblogs
run by Nigerians, many of which create the forum for the masses to air
their views and make meaningful contribution to topics being discussed
by a chain of users. Klinreports.com, Chidiopara reports, Nairaland,
Naijapost, Naija.com, Pulse Nigeria, Topic.net and Amana online among
a host of others are some of the popular blogs in Nigeria. In fact, as at July

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2009, there were about 475 Nigerian blogs, with Nigeria having an online
population of 42 million people (Nwabueze 2014). This trend must have
improved significantly over the years.
As one could rightly expect, the heavy online presence has widened
the scope of citizen journalism practice in the country, a form of journalism
where members of the public play an active role in the process of collecting,
reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. With citizens
becoming reporters of issues and events happening around them, freedom
of information is enhanced, empowering them to be actively involved in the
democratic process (Suntai and Targema 2015).
Democracy as a concept originates about 2400 years ago in ancient
Greece. It simply means “rule by the people (Galadima and Goshit 2013).
Democracy requires that each individual be free to participate in the political
community’s self-government. To this end, political freedom lies at the
heart of the concept of democracy. Basically, democracy connotes rule by
the people through free and fair elections and other forms of participation.
According to Galadima and Goshit (2013), the Athenians of ancient
Greece, progenitors of democracy, did not leave us in dearth of definition
for the concept, conceiving it in their days as “government of the people,
by the people and for the people”. To this end, democracy entails popular
sovereignty, political equality, recognition of the consent of the governed as
well as free and fair elections among other forms of participation.
Democracy puts accent on people’s participation. Everyone involved
should be carried along, and this is where the role of the media becomes
necessary. Thus, an environment of dialogue is sine qua non for the
sustenance of democracy, but this cannot be achieved unless the media and
other essential fabrics that hold democratic institutions are in place. The
trending social media and citizen journalism that allow for participation
and unlimited access to all, among other virtues, are thus central to the
sustenance of modern democracies.
However, central to the exercise of this civic responsibility is the
volume of information at the disposal of the masses to take informed
decisions all through the electoral process, and that is why Gambo (2013)
stresses that liberal democracies rests purely on the capacity of the mass
media to gather and disseminate information that can guide citizens in
making rational choices. Citing Ibrahim, he notes that:

For the people to be able to determine who wants to rule them based
on an understanding of his policies as well as what structures etc. are
preferable in the society presupposes a certain amount of knowledge
and information which must be supplied …the availability of neutral
information about the functioning of the political system makes it

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New media and democracy in Nigeria: an appraisal of the opportunities and threats in
the terrain

possible for the electorate of a democracy to perform its recruitment

function intelligibly and effectively and at the same time tends to create
an informed stratum of citizens who are public policy-oriented rather
than interest oriented in a narrow sense (Gambo 2013, 109).

This is where the nexus between new media and democracy lies.
While democracy needs adequate information to filter through its various
levels, the new media provide the best platform for the circulation of such
information. Through its various platforms, the masses get exposed to
information about the activities of the principal actors in the process of
governance. Thus, new media has become a formidable force that drives
contemporary Nigerian democracy.

Social Responsibility: the Theoretical Bedrock

Social responsibility theory draws the attention of journalists to
the fact that they have freedom attach with responsibility to the society.
According to Bitner (1989), by the turn of the twentieth century, the printed
press had been through the era of yellow journalism (a kind of journalism
characterized by reckless reporting and unethical practice). Prior to this era,
the press, through the efforts of freedom fighters such as John Milton, John
Erskine, Thomas Jefferson and John Stuart Mill attained some considerable
degree of freedom to operate without restrictions (formal/informal,
constitutional or otherwise) in place (Sambe 2008).
There was thus a great need for self-moderation by journalists
who were already abusing the excessive freedom. The social responsibility
theory, thus, came on board. Central to the core assumptions of the theory is
the fact that the press has the right to criticize government and institutions,
but also has certain basic responsibilities to maintain the stability of society.
Nurturing this theory is the rise of professional associations associated with
Journalism globally; such as the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Nigerian Guild of Editors etc., and the
evolution of codes of conduct/ethics that encourages responsible action by
their members.
With the advent of the new media that has conferred unto every
citizen the status of a journalist; the scope of freedom of expression has
been extended. No doubt, the various platforms have liberalized the market
place of ideas, and have removed the least official barriers to freedom
of expression in countries like Nigeria, where the state allows for free
interaction on the various platforms.
However, with the public assuming the role of reporters and

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professional journalists as citizen journalists via the various new media

platforms, there is a great need to re-interrogate the social responsibility
question. These issues quickly surge forward: can citizen journalists and
members of the general public abide by the ethics standards of the profession
in their reportage of activities around them? Can one rely on information by
citizen journalists and social media accounts as substitutes for news in the
mainstream media? Is there any need to enact rules and regulations so as
to checkmate reckless spread of information on the social media platforms?
After all, how does the spread of incredible information on social media
platforms effect the entrenchment of democracy and national unity/
cohesion in Nigeria? Answers to these questions have become pressing,
given the current level of abuse which the platforms have been subjected to,
as will be discussed in the subsequent sections of the study.

New Media and Democracy in Nigeria: Some Basic

observations
Democracy benefits a lot from the opportunities offered by the new
media which attracts active youths that interact constantly on the various
platforms. In contemporary Nigeria, new media platforms, such as social
media, are agog with youths and members of the general public to the
extent that the political class is compelled to key into this new technology to
sustain their relevance. In the words of Adeyanju (2013, 201):

The expanded information in public sphere and the quantum of

information at the disposal of the citizens are making it imperative for
those interested in public opinion to change their strategies at influencing
it. Many politicians and governments are now moving fast to imbibe the
new media and even the social media to get their messages across to
the people. The traditional media are no longer enough to do this. It
is becoming very common to see politicians have their own blogs and
chat constantly with their audience on Facebook while at the same time
monitoring their activities on Twitter.

Elsewhere, we could use the United States President, Donald

Trump’s constant use of Twitter for the purpose of communication as an
instance to justify the claim in the assertion above. But even in Nigeria,
an avalanche of evidence abounds as well. Most of the political actors have
their official twitter handles which they use to constantly update their fans
with information. Also, spin doctors for the various politicians and political
groups in the country have created Facebook profiles, pages and groups
to supply the masses with information about such personnel or sects.
This serves to demonstrate the centrality of the new media to the current

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New media and democracy in Nigeria: an appraisal of the opportunities and threats in
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democratic experiment in the country. Below are few case studies where
the new media serve as facilitators of democracy in Nigeria’s recent history.

The 2015 General Elections

The civil society deployed the arsenal of social media effectively
to disseminate information during the 2015 general elections in Nigeria.
According to Elegbede (2015), during the period of campaign, Tweetmeets
and Hangouts were the in-thing within Nigerian online socio-political
networks. Hashtags such as #MeetGej, #Febuhari, #Marchoutjonathan,
#WhyiwillvoteGEJ, #MarchforBuhari, #GMB15, #LagosForYou and
#iHavedecided were promoted by politicians and their supporters; while
#NigeriaDecides, #Nigeria2015, #iPledgeToVote, #MyPVCnow, #GoVote,
#VoteNoFight, etc. were promoted by civil society groups to increase
citizens’ awareness and participation (see also Suntai and Targema 2015).
During the voting process, pictures and videos floated on Facebook
and Watsapp accounts of party agents who were caught in the act buying
voters with money and some other grants as well as the issue of underage
voting in some states prompting immediate action by INEC. Similarly,
during the collation of results, citizen journalists and the civil society never
spared any effort to update the public on the nature of results in the various
states across the federation (Oseni 2015).
Initially, the results were viewed skeptically as mere facades by the
“zealous” APC, the opposition party that was bent to grab the mantle of
leadership come what may. The masses were however, surprised to observe
that when such results were eventually announced at the collation center,
they used to tally with the citizen journalists’ account on social media. In
no time at all, the social media sites were saturated with subscribers who
logged in to be updated on the elections. To quote Oseni (2015, 3):
the trending results on social media made it clear to Nigerians that
the APC had won in the north-east, north-west, south-west and was
competing with PDP in the north central, while PDP led at the south-
south and south-east. Been agitated by the results trending on social
media, PDP accused APC of posting fake election results on social media
and further charged Nigerians to totally disregard results on social media
and wait for official announcement by INEC… However, there was no
significant difference between results announced by INEC and those
trending on social media.

Analysts contend that the utilization of social media in the elections

obviously frustrated Nigerian politicians and stopped the popular strategy of
changing election results by returning officers in collaboration with political
parties. All through the process of the elections, every citizen equipped with

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a mobile cell phone was an observer/reporter, ready to raise alarm to the

virtual world/online community on any traces of malpractice or suspicion
at any point in the election. This, alongside other forces, culminated into an
election that was near free, fair and credible. Oseni (2015, 4) sums up his
argument thus:

Social media age is a revolution to Nigerian democracy; those who must

win election must win the will of the people. The days of changing election
results by returning officers have gone. By the power of social media,
citizens know who win elections before results are officially announced
by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC… social media
has become a force and we must live up to this reality.

Emetumah (2016) stresses the role played by social media in the

2015 polls when he notes that the various platforms helped shape the opinion
of a lot of youths in the election and increased the political awareness and
consciousness of the youths in the country, the outcome of which was the
emergence of an unbelievable win of opposition party (APC) over the ruling
party (PDP) in the presidential election.

Aftermath of the 2015 General Elections

Two years into the government of President Mohammadu Buhari,
the new media have continued to facilitate participatory democracy in the
country by linking the government and the governed through the various
discursive platforms it harbors. The key agenda of the government - anti-
graft war, economic recovery and security among others - have continued
to stimulate engaging debates on the new media platforms. These debates
helps to express the sentiments of the masses towards key policy decisions
of the government to enable for adjustments where need be. In democratic
rule, feedback from the masses is crucial to carry everybody along. This
is where the new media come in, thus, they fill the information gap that
hitherto existed, and facilitate free flow of information in the process of
governance, both vertically and horizontally.

Basic Threats Associated with the Practice

While the new media appears to provide vibrant discursive channels
that will facilitate democracy in the country, a careful observation of the
trend reveal quite a number of threats that are not only worrisome, but have
the capacity to diminish the opportunities which they offer to countries with
budding democracies like Nigeria. First on the trail of such threats is the
issue of hate and dangerous speech. This practice was really endemic in the

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New media and democracy in Nigeria: an appraisal of the opportunities and threats in
the terrain

build-up to the 2015 general elections, where the platforms were deployed
to perpetuate campaigns of calumny against candidates with opposing
views. So serious was the practice that it almost divided the country into the
extremes of the Muslim-North and Christian-South.
Ibrahim, Pate, Pereira, Ya’u, Agbanyin and Bagu (2017, 6)
investigate the escalation of hate and dangerous speech in the build up
to the 2015 election in the country and discover that: “there is extensive
evidence of an explosion of hate and dangerous speech in Nigeria over the
past decade, especially through the broadcast and social media as their major
transmitters”. The issue here is that, although the divide between North and
South has existed in the country for long, new media platforms accentuated
the division, and created an atmosphere full of enmity for one another
during the 2015 elections. Sentiments that lie latent in the minds of people
were given a voice, and widely expressed. This development poses a great
threat to the fragile democracy which the country is striving to consolidate.
Similarly, Emetumah (2016, 1) reveals in his study that: “though
social media helped in creating political awareness among Nigeria’s
electorates; they also served as negative propaganda platform for
dissemination of hate speeches”. The study which surveys opinions of 200
social media subscribers in Nigeria arrives at a conclusion, that:

Social media users grossly abused freedom of information offered through

the medium in Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election period… the two
leading political parties (APC and PDP) accused themselves of spreading
false information on social media using their followers. However, due
to unavailability of regulatory outfit, politicians succeeded in using the
platforms to disseminate unofficial and inaccurate results that created
controversies among stakeholders and political parties in violation to
electoral acts guiding elections in Nigeria. Thus, the platforms became
a new ground for propagating unreliable election messages (Emetumah
2016, 8).

Today, new media platforms have amplified the voices of secessionist

groups in the country such as the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), who
are agitating for an independent state; the struggle which courts the various
online media platforms gains momentum by the day, and is threatening
the very foundation of Nigeria as a country. What this suggests is that in
a diverse entity such as Nigeria, which is grappling with the herculean
challenge of unity in diversity, new media platforms which present an
unregulated free-for-all terrain can play a counter-progressive role, and pose
serious challenges to the task of democratic consolidation.

Concluding Remarks

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Conclusively, new media platforms are formidable forces in the

consolidation of democracy. The information gap, which they help to
bridge, benefits democracy in no small measure, and serves to strengthen
the cherished principles of transparency and accountability in the process of
governance. Nigerian democracy is speedily heading towards this enviable
destination courtesy of the new media. Similarly, the new media platforms
have extended the frontiers of political participation and interaction
between the rulers and the ruled. This is a positive development that needs
to be acknowledge, as it makes democracy in the country to live up to the
expectations of its generic definition, as government of the people, for the
people, and for the people.
However, the abuses that characterize the platforms are equally
worrisome, given the threats they harbor, and the damage they portend for
Nigeria’s fragile democracy. In a country that is grappling with the challenge
of unity in diversity, the various platforms if utilized otherwise can deepen
the divides that already exist, and plunge the country into a deep dark ditch.
Practices such as dissemination of outright lies and deliberate falsehood,
dangerous, injurious and vituperative speech capable of spreading hatred
among others can overheat the polity, and make nonsense of the budding
democracy which the country strives to consolidate. On this note, the study
recommends by borrowing the words of Suntai and Targema (2015, 16),
that:

The civil society is hereby cautioned to exhibit a sense of responsibility

in the process of online interaction through the process of self-regulation
and rational judgment. In this way, the vices of social media will be
minimized and its virtues maximized to enable it serve as an effective
facilitator of democracy.

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Alexander, O., Ifeanyi, A. L. and Martin, O. P. 2016. “Preying on platforms:
a comparative analysis of social media and traditional mass me-
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Ibrahim, I., Pate, U., Pereira, C., Ya’u, Y.Z., Agbanyin, B.O. and Bagu, C.
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Ibadan: Spectrum Books

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ABSTRACT
Democracy in Nigeria, no doubt, gains momentum recently. This development
coincides with an era of increased access to information by the masses courtesy
of the new media and its numerous platforms and communication opportunities.
Today, each member of the audience who is connected to the new media can not only
access information, but can also create and share same on the various platforms for
mass consumption. Democracy, which entails popular participation in the process
of governance benefits immensely from this trend. This study explores the role new
media plays in the consolidation of democracy in the country, with keen attention
on the communication channels of the 2015 general elections, where new media
championed the spread of information about the election, and the aftermath of the
election period, that paved the way for the present administration. Anchored on
the Social Responsibility Theory, the study interrogates the extent to which new
media platforms liberalize the process of political communication in the country,
and the opportunities and threats, which they harbor for democratic consolidation.
The central argument in the study is that the new media presents a useful tool in
the hands of activists and concerned citizens to participate in the government of
the day and effectively play the watchdog role, a privilege which, hitherto, was far
from reality. Sadly, however, several abuses exist that are threatening to rubbish
the opportunities of the platform such as the prevalence of hate and dangerous
speech, increased intensity of lies, mischiefs, falsehood and negative propaganda,
and the use of comment sections to attack, verbally assault, bully and demonize
co-discussants of political matters raised in the news via the numerous online
platforms. To this end, the paper recommends a ‘cautious’ incorporation of the new
media in the democratic process to pave the way for more participation.

KEYWORDS
New media; democracy; Nigeria; opportunities; threats.

Received on November 14, 2017.

Approved on January 11, 2018.

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