Twitter Orubebe, #PDPHouseOfHunger and the death of social media in Nigeria

As I began to register for the events I would be attending at Social Media Week Lagos which begins today Monday February 22 for the fourth year, I was taken aback to last year’s edition. It was the first time the organizers would be introducing the campus format hence the choice of Landmark Event Center, it was also probably the second time I would be listening live to Omojuwa – an experience that allowed me to have a better understanding of a typical Nigerian Twitter celebrity with political affiliation.

He spoke on a panel hosted by Gbenga Sesan-led Paradigm Initiative Nigeria on how young Nigerians could use social media to get jobs. In the course of his talk, he spoke on how he was making money from his highly influential Twitter account. Specifically, he said he posted Tweets on behalf of corporate organizations including First Bank and Coca-Cola (or Pepsi, I can’t specifically say which one). He also said he was doing stuffs for MTN and several other companies. But what he said that made me to ‘unfollow’ him right inside the hall, even though I still respect his honesty and openness, was his description of his followers as his currency.

In subsequent months, he further rose in significance in Nigeria’s social media space and somehow became a major formidable force in the social media camp of the Muhammadu Buhari campaign team though he didn’t categorically mentioned this, but he featured on some APC-organized events towards the last general elections; his tweets also suggested that he was supporting President Buhari. Many social media users in Nigeria still describe him as the worst nightmare of PDP on social media.

Fast forward to last week, Monday to be specific, Twitter Orubebe was the trending topic and Omojuwa was the butt of the joke but about 24 hours later, it emerged that the trend and several others were masterminded by a PDP social media think tank group. In one of the leaked messages, a member of the group, Ata Ikiddeh, said members of the group that are active on social media deserved to be compensated by the PDP leadership.

“The team needs someone recording the successes of the team on social media. There needs to be screen shoots on demographic/statistical evidence of approximate number of people reached. This team is doing a tremendous work and I hope the PDP leadership recognizes and compensates accordingly,” he or she said.

This development confirmed the fears of many Nigerians without any political affiliations, that the true voice of the people has been suppressed by the social media celebrities on either side of the country’s political aisle.

Unlike before when sincerely pressing topics would trend without consulting the likes of Omojuwa, Tolu Ogunlesi, and other social media ‘influencers’, it has become almost impossible to use social media to feel the real pulse of the nation since everyone now wants their topics to trend across Nigeria even when they make no sense – such as those trends pushed by individuals paid by musicians to make their tracks become the number one topic in Nigeria. Knowing our addiction for trends, Twitter decided to make it official with the sponsored trend idea.

Thinking about this development, I began to ask myself whether we would have known about the Chibok girls back then if we had the current large number of social media strategists that we have now. I can recollect that the first #BringBackOurGirls tweet was sent by an Abuja-based lawyer before it went viral. What if his tweet had to contend with those on Twitter Orubebe and #PDPHouseOfHunger, would the world have known about the missing girls?

I also thought of this in another way. How many big stories have we missed due to the competition for attention? According to the leaked BBM group messages, the PDP social media team has trend agenda throughout the week, they only took a break because of the phenomenal success of the Twitter Orubebe. With the large number of people in the group and several other similar ones, not to talk of the opposing side, it becomes almost impossible for the voice of most Nigerians to be heard and it doesn’t come as a surprise that it’s been a while that a major non-partisan issue got the attention of everyone as #BringBackOurGirls did. I guess the foreign media is aware of the hypocrisy going on in Nigeria’s social media space.

Without even knowing that they are being used to destroy the effectiveness of social media in Nigeria, Nigerian youths who ought to be using social media to stimulate positive change are the ones working for politicians and political parties to discredit social media trends for few wads of Naira notes. Even at the state and local levels, there is a palpably strong desire to control social media as opposing parties engage the services of influencers and those that have much followers (even those buying followers are making cool money). They are paid some amount of money and in return, they influence the dialogue on their timeline in favour of who is paying.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that the ultimate goal of the active social media users who are being used by politicians is to be compensated with appointments such as Tolu Ogunlesi’s latest position as President Buhari’s special assistant on digital and new media. But not everyone will get such appointments; the rest will continue to feed on the crumbs that come their way while assiduously tweeting to get the attention of their targeted paymaster.

As Social Media Week Lagos returns this week, I look forward to deliberations on how to make social media in Nigeria once again become the voice of the people. As a nation, we need to stop politicians from hijacking every available means of communication and every channel that the citizens could use to make their voices heard.

Considering the cosmopolitan economic woes and other crises that Nigerians combat with on a daily basis, it is obvious that we can no longer fold our hands and allow the noise made by Twitter Orubebe, PDP House of Hunger and other attack dogs of individuals and groups with vetted interests to silence that of the little girl in captivity in northern Nigeria or the Akure father hoping that people will continue to retweet his message until it gets to his prodigal son who is somewhere in London.

But I won’t get my hopes up nor expect all answers to come from Social Media Week Lagos since even the event’s co-founder, Obi Asika, a man I admire so much for his uprightness, couldn’t say no to the former president’s social media strategist job offer.

Now you know why I said social media is dead in Nigeria.