City People Write, City People Read III

Finally, we have a third episode of a post. It’s not surprising that it is “City People Write, City People Read”. The interesting times continue.

There has been a lot of talks regarding the idea that social media will not vote or elections are not won via the social media. Those theories might sound true but it is unwise to undermine the power of social media. If social media was that ineffective, why was Twitter banned in Nigeria because of hate speech? The EndSars movement that shut down parts of the country gained momentum on social media. Nevertheless, they could be right; I could be wrong.

The talks got louder after the elections in Osun. But didn’t social media vote? What do we really mean by social media voting? We need to remind ourselves that social media is not a political party. The social media political gurus have stated that the main concept about social media voting is towards a person, not a party. The social media ideology is that wherever the chosen candidate pitches his/her tent, they will vote for him/her.

In other news, a senator from Akwa Ibom defected from one of the two biggest parties to a relatively unknown party after certain “disagreements” with his former party. Politicians defecting from one party to another is nothing strange. It’s just like Nicolas Anelka moving around top clubs in England.

However, some people have asked him to resign, quoting the section of the constitution that posits that a lawmaker should resign if they defect to another political party unless there were factions in his/her previous party. The arguments have started: are there factions in Akwa Ibom PDP?

It is at this point that we will say: City People Write, City People Read.