Abstract
There is a growing interest in the ways non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can ensure that electorates have access to information that could improve comprehension of the electoral process and reinforce tranquil relations between the electorates and political stakeholders. This study examined the usage of social media for 2019 electoral peace campaign by NGOs in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study adopted a qualitative research method and multistage sampling technique was adopted as sampling technique. The study focused mainly on four LGAs i.e. Asa, Ilorin South, Ilorin West and Ilorin East Local Government Areas. In these four LGAs, 15 NGOs with vested interest in electoral peace campaigns were purposively selected. Unstructured interview was used to collect data from the social media handlers of theses NGOs. The data collected were recorded and transcribed. The gathered data were arranged in themes following the approach of manual thematic analysis. Findings from this study showed that NGOs in Kwara State used social media for electoral peace campaign during 2019 general elections. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn were the most used social media platforms among NGOs in Kwara State during 2019 general elections; however, there level of usage is average. The motivation for social media usage among NGOs in Kwara State during 2019 general elections can be attributed to the wider coverage and reach of social media. Lastly, during 2019 general elections, NGOs in Kwara State embarked on peace campaigns before elections, some do it during and few do it post electoral peace campaign. Among several recommendations, the study recommended that the electoral umpire in Nigeria, Independent National Electoral Commission should include training of officers in their electoral briefings on the viability of social media use during elections by officers.
Highlights
As indicated by Kemp (2019), the Internet audience grows by a million daily
Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are the most commonly used social media platforms among Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Kwara State and their usage was based on the uniqueness and the ability of each of the platform to aid the campaign of electoral peace
The electoral peace campaigns in Nigeria results from five inter-related factors: the ideal of orderly elections and potential to instrumentalize peace encourages NGOs to invest their time and energy in such campaigns; a fear that elections will descend into violence guarantees a responsive public; the difficulty of addressing the underlying drivers of violence encourages an individualization of responsibility
Summary
There are 3.48 billion users of social media in 2019, with the figure skyrocketing by 288 million since 2018 (Kemp, 2019). From a humble 200,000 users in 2000, reports demonstrated that 98.39 million Nigerians utilize the Internet in 2019, with 54% making use of it every day and 12% (24 million) having active social media accounts (Udodiong, 2019). Figures like these stress the expanding prevalence and accessibility of social media networks and demonstrate that the manners by which individuals share information have changed drastically. The effect that social media currently have on how we get process and produce information is constantly developing, and associations/ institutions that utilize these new platforms of communication might be more successful in realizing their established goals
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