Examining Social Media Usage for the Mobilization of the ‘Obi-Dients’ During the 2023 Presidential Election in Delta and Edo States, Nigeria

Abstract

Political stakeholders’ mobilization is one of the necessary requirements for a robust political process in every democratic dispensation. Over the years, numerous political actors have devised different means of ensuring that citizens are well mobilized to be active in political discourse and actions.  The emergence of social media, an offshoot of technological advancement, in particular, has expanded opportunities to get the citizens more engaged in the political process of which political mobilization is germane. Therefore, this study basically sought to evaluate social media use as tools for voters’ mobilization during 2023 Presidential Election in the two states of Delta and Edo States, Nigeria. The study which was anchored on Technological Determinism Theory employed descriptive statistics with survey method. Accordingly, a sample size of 400 was drawn from the sample population of 5,722,778 using Taro Yamane’s sampling determination formula. The questionnaire was used as the instrument of data collection. The data collected were presented and analyzed using simple frequency count, percentages and tables. The major findings of the study shows that social media platforms, particularly WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube among others serve as the prominent channels of political mobilization of Obi-dients. The study further reveal that social media were used by Obi-dients to express their political opinion, create awareness and generation of grassroots support for Obi-dients’ movement. The study also reveals that social media were of great influence in the 2023 presidential elections in Nigeria by increasing political participation which in the long run influenced the voters’ preference of candidates. This study recommends that Political parties and candidates should leverage on social media platforms in all electioneering processes. Election regulatory bodies should put in place well-articulated guidelines on how political actors should use the social media networks for electioneering campaigns.