Youths, Social Media & Government by Bello Shuaibu

Over the years with the emergence of social media we have had a tremendous change in the system which government operates and also information can easily be accessible from the use of our mobile devices other than the days of old where we can only access information from print media, television/satellite channels and radio stations with the government having little or no idea of how the people (youths & old persons) feel about their policies & system of government.

Government officials, agencies now have social media accounts which the general public can express their concerns by sharing their views, comments & suggestion using the various social media platforms like facebook, twitter, instagram and others.
Who are the youths? Just as the Nigerian youth policy (2009) defines youth as persons between 18-35 years. The youth charter declares that youth or young people shall refer to every person between the ages of 15 and 35 years while the United Nations defines youth as persons between the age of 15 and 24.

As youths we need to be very careful in our dealings with government affairs and issues concerned with the government. Remember the federal government is composed of three distinct branches; legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the constitution of Nigeria in the National Assembly, the President, and the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, respectively. So therefore if there are laws, activities, policies by these public servants which is not helping the people but rather making life unbearable, creating unemployment or whatever it may be that is not in any way beneficial to the people that needs to be changed, adjusted or completely removed the youths can play a major role by airing the views without fear using the various available social media platforms which will in turn bring about positive outcome to be benefited by us all been members of the community, state and country.

A good example of the impact of social media can be sighted in the 2017 twitter harsh tag “#EndSARS” which brought about public outcry and experiences people have had with the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F SARS) and the call for it to be abolished. Many expressed the views and experiences on how they have been molested, beaten and robbed by the agency which is meant to protect them. Many said they were been searched on daily bases and dragged to ATMs to withdraw money as the they were tagged fraudsters known as yahoo yahoo meanwhile they are youths simply working as entrepreneurs, some graphic artiste, web designers and others involved in e-commerce and other businesses. The harsh tag brought about a protest which led to re-organization of the Anti-Robbery Squard (FSARS)

The bring back our girls harsh tag in 2014 also brought about the attention of the international communities all urging the government of Nigeria to bring back the girls who were kidnapped by the book haram terrorist group. The Nigerian government was forced to put more effort in tackling and fighting the terrorist group. Now that’s also the power of the social media.

Like we all know over 90% of our youths today use the social media, many use it for the wrong reasons, like fraud, promoting nudity and others but if the youths can deviate from such dubious and immoral activities and focus of goal driven activities that can bring about improvements in our daily lives and raising topics that will bring about making good government policies, decisions tackling unemployment, low power supply and other issues. Should there be a light Nigeria harsh tag or employ Nigeria hash tags today then I believe we would have a good and better country, but then we need to be serious about it for the government to work towards it.

The government can govern the people if they are well informed of the problems of the people so therefore we must lay our complains, comments and observations using the social media freely.

The 2019 elections is months away from today so I urge the youths to be careful in their dealings so they don’t make a wrong choice by supporting the wrong candidate. We should compare the past, previous and present government and be sure we are supporting the right candidate. We should run a background check on whoever we are supporting and not just only show support on social media but also come out and vote when the day comes.

Remember your views on social media can help change people’s opinion about others so the youths must try as much possible not to make mistakes. Other issues can be discussed on social media like health and others but then as we talking about youths and government we should vote for the right candidate.

Bello Shuaibu (@badmusbello)
Social Media Expert

Thank you for reading.
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True enough. Nigerian youths have been relegated to doing hatchet jobs when they can be much more.

But 90% of youths on social media? I doubt it

No other surest way to influence the government than a massive street protest. But then again, that's when you'd see the police and army molest innocent protesters, tagging them nuisance.

Nigeria is a shithole indeed.

We are already doing that. We did it in 2015. We shall do it again in 2019.

Let's begin #endbuhari# movement please

OP, why you do your face like that now?

In my house, we call faces like these "Obioma"

okay

Stop tribalism so we can fight side by side, I didn't read the epistle.


I can't wait to see Buhari's meme riding his cows back to duara, and his blood sucking herdsmen.

the send buhari back to daura has started

Ok o

b

It is possible

Nonsense, all the social media protest we have done has resulted to what?

These things work in U.S and Europe not Nigeria.

Majority of the voting population don't have access to or are not on social media. And for all these to be successful in Nigeria, our literacy rate must increase and access to internet made cheaper.

.

only cows can be used to influence this cursed government, in other news..... MESSI is better than RONALDO

No o, we will rather use our data and time to call one another afonja, ipigs, brownroofs etc and the old men kill laughing at our stupidity

Social media?? with heartless and mean individuals. People with no conscience. People that kill others at will. People that care less about the less privileged

Shayneward1:
Nonsense, all the social media protest we have done has resulted to what?

These things work in U.S and Europe not Nigeria.

it has resulted to send Gej from aso rock and same will happen to buhari

shout out to the op for this thread, they need to know we have the power to make change there's too much "e didn't happen to me so it's not my business " attitude and that won't move us forward

Suspect33:
only cows can be used to influence this cursed government, in other news..... MESSI is better than RONALDO

Ronaldo is better than Messi

Shayneward1:
Nonsense, all the social media protest we have done has resulted to what?

These things work in U.S and Europe not Nigeria.

sounds like you're giving up

I am going to come up with a strong political thread, we are all going to be our eyes for the change we so need

We would need representatives of all or almost all voting wards on this thread.

They have failed us
They know we have the strength and numbers
We kicked Jonathan out
We would kick this present administration out
With social media and our voters card
There won't be room for manipulations
Cause the whole world would be following live on this thread
Only if seun sees the light and create an enabling presence on his platform

Felixalex:
No o, we will rather use our data and time to call one another afonja, ipigs, brownroofs etc and the old men kill laughing at our stupidity

LMAO as funny as this is it's actually prevalent on nairaland we need to stop it oh

Which youths please.....

Good idea, but meanwhile, its not all about kicking out successive govts with a blank hope of a better leadership ..

We need a credible leader we can hold responsible, one who is unbiased and free from any God fatherism or ethnicity or religious bigotry. We need a leadership we can trust one who wont work for the elites but work with interest of Nigeria heart

United we stand
Divided we fall

The #endsars is a perfect example as you mentioned. While the objective might not have been fully achieved, it drew the attention of the FG and they had to respond.

There's really power in numbers on any platform either physically or electronically.

We Nigerians need to recognize and utilize this. We are always too divided among nonsense tribal, religious or ethnic lines.

kagari:
I am going to come up with a strong political thread, we are all going to be our eyes for the change we so need

We would need representatives of all or almost all voting wards on this thread.

They have failed us
They know we have the strength and numbers
We kicked Jonathan out
We would kick this present administration out
With social media and our voters card
There won't be room for manipulations
Cause the whole world would be following live on this thread
Only if seun sees the light and create an enabling presence on his platform

Good but not another old fooool.

Toosure70:
Good but not another old fooool.

The idea is for us to be the eyes of our votes, go vote and make sure you get a result before leaving there

If we decide to vote another old foool, that would be our loss

Aquariann:
Majority of the voting population don't have access to or are not on social media. And for all these to be successful in Nigeria, our literacy rate must increase and access to internet made cheaper.

I agree with you but the population of the learned in Nigeria is enough to influence election outcome. So we can help the unlearned make the right decisions by critically chosen the candidate to vote for.