Ben Uzor Jr
Nigerians intending to hook up with Goodluck Jonathan, President of the federal republic of Nigeria via Facebook may be stunned to know that the number of individuals directly connected to the president has exceeded the requisite capacity as specified by the social networking site, Business Day can now reveal. This in effect means that people who desire to add Jonathan ‘as a friend’ on Facebook cannot carry out that simple task because according to the system, ‘. . . this user already has too many friends’.
Business Day gathered that Nigerians could still interact with the President through his fan page. Within four days of establishing the page, Jonathan has registered 50,000 fans, more than any Nigerian politician on the network. Equally, Jonathan had set up a Facebook account strategically to create an interface for luminous contribution from all Nigerians. It was also created as an avenue to express his commitment towards ushering in an epoch of electoral uprightness.
A recent post on his fan page reads: “If we want a better Nigeria we will have to create it. It will not just happen. I am not asking you to believe in me. I'm requesting you to believe in yourself. Today I swore in the new Chairman of INEC and I pledge to all Nigerians to give them a free hand. Every support needed will be mobilised to make them achieve the objective for a greater Nigeria…GEJ”. This post was however followed by over 1, 500 comments from Nigerians as at press time. Well meaning Nigerians made positive suggestions on how Nigeria’s electoral process could be further strengthened.
“Mr. President Sir, My humble suggestion is to get an organisation such as the Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) to monitor the activities of INEC and ensure transparency in her activities. Elonna Aguh, a Facebook user responded to Mr. President’s post. Moreover, the social media platform’s rising popularity amongst Nigerians as a strong meeting point for social protest may be responsible for the growing number of citizens trying to get connected to the President, it was further learnt.
Industry experts say that Jonathan could effectively use the media platform and the feedback received to make better decision and consequently position the nation to achieve its vision 20:20 target. In his reaction, Oronto Douglas, special assistant to the President on Strategy pointed out that the President was delighted with the new avenue of interaction with Nigerians, especially the youths.
“I must say that Mr. President is pleasantly surprised at the response from the people of Nigeria to his page particularly as he manages and monitors it personally. The feedback we glean from the almost 2,000 comments posted on the page by Nigerians daily has started helping and will continue helping Mr. President feels the pulse of the public as he takes decisions that affect Nigerians everyday.”
Besides, youths, civil and human rights groups are already engaging Facebook for constructive social criticism. But more basically, the social networking site offers a great medium to reach million of Nigerians with amazing targeting possibilities including age, gender, interest and behavioral markings, experts say. With the population of Nigerians on Facebook surpassing the 1.14 million mark as at March 2010, it was learnt that the platform was amongst the top three most visited websites by Nigerians.
On the international scene, Barack Obama, president of the United States of America (USA) has already garnered 9.41 million followers on Facebook. It would be recalled that the social networking platform was instrumental to the victory of Obama at the polls as great support was mobilised using the medium during his campaign. Kingsley Bankole Ugah, a Facebook user told Business Day yesterday that Facebook has indeed created an avenue for Nigerians to interact with their President.
“It is really a good thing that our president is on Facebook. It really shows that he understands the power of Facebook not just as a tool for social change but also as platform for getting feedback. The average Nigerian can now participate in governance by making suggestions and telling the president about some of the socio-economic challenges the masses face. It is unfortunate that more people can no longer add him ‘as a friends’ on Facebook. I hope something can be done about it”, he added.
Kenneth Omeruo, founder of TechTrends Nigeria, a leading ICT empowerment blog who spoke to Business Day in a telephone chat said: “It is not really unusual because Nigerians have been unable to add other prominent Nigerians like Pat Utomi, Fani Kayode, Nasir El-Rufia because of the same issue. For a president, he would likely need a page. And, I think the president already has a fan page. It is much more interactive and can allow more people join and use it as a medium of communicating with him on a personal level. With this, he can hear the truth from the streets and make better decisions.”
No comments:
Post a Comment