President Muhammadu Buhari has only been in office for a little over
two weeks, yet he is already bringing some changes to Africa via social
media.
Many people may have known about the Twitter experience of the
President. What they do not know is that he is also an active user of
Instagram, a platform that is rarely considered for political
engagement.
Within a short period of being on Instagram, Buhari is already followed by 33,000 people and he has 146 posts to his credit.
While the President takes to Instagram to post his activities in a
pictorial form, many Nigerians have started taking him to task on
campaign promises that he made through the channel. Job creation and
electricity top the list of requests that the people have presented to
him.
What
remains is for Buhari to take his conversations with thousands of
Nigerians who like, share their experiences with him and comment on his
posts to a personal level.
In terms of number (of channels) and following on Twitter, he is
already many steps ahead of many African leaders, many of whom joined
the social media buzz several years before he did.
For instance, Buhari is ahead of President Jacob Zuma of South Africa
in social media rating. Zuma, who leads a country that is more
Internet-active than Nigeria, is not on Instagram. There is no
verifiable account on this networking site that is registered in his
name. More so, his sole channel – Twitter page – is followed by 382,000
other users after over four years of existence.
Comparably, Buhari’s personal Twitter page, which is relatively new,
is followed by 308,000 people and his official handle, @NGRPresident,
has 47,600 followers.
On Facebook, the President has garnered 119,188 followers even though
the account is less than a year old. In addition, there is a functional
personal website to complement the activities of the social media
platforms.
Also, Buhari may have commenced the long-expected
institutionalisation of the social media as a key communication channel.
This is another aspect of the change that he is bringing into the use
of social networks among African leaders.
While he runs a personal Twitter account, the President has launched
an official page that is dedicated to his office. Both of them are
verified and distinctly branded in terms of profile photographs and
biography. This is a practice no other African leader has embraced yet.
Buhari is, no doubt, doing something quite uncommon among African
leaders. The only exception is President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya who is
equally very active online.
Even then, Internet-savvy Kenyatta is not Buhari’s match in terms of
Instagram following. While the latter is followed by 33,000 on the
photo-centric forum, his Kenya counterpart, whose page could not however
be verified, has 984 followers.
For a leader that has exceeded what many people regard as the
Internet age limit, Buhari’s new media reach has endeared him to the
online community, who keep coming to his social networks to share and
make demands.
The President may have long recognised the benefits of being active
online and this explains why he singled out social media from other
‘soft areas’ for a mention during his inaugural speech.
Meanwhile, Buhari’s spokespersons, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, are still engaging the public through unverified accounts.
Adesina is tweeting on @FemiAdesina while Shehu tweets on @GarShehu.
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