As I trudge home from the office most evenings, my Twitter Timeline imitates life: people fall in love, hearts are broken, family ties are forged, leadership is slated, seemingly ordinary folks transform into overlords, Capitalism thrives, football fans take a dig at opposing fans and bread is broken.
As my Twitter friends retire to their bedrooms thereafter however, reality sinks in: Dr Goodluck Jonathan is still President and poverty and mindless violence stalks the land on all fours. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is the point where social media and real life part ways. For all its amazing features and cool applications, social media still can’t elect a good President and improve living conditions on the streets. Social media can’t even make you a cup of coffee.
Or can it?
Last Tuesday, in the unhealthy cauldron that is Lagos traffic, I attempted to answer that question. I asked my Twitter followers to avail me with names of possible Presidential picks come 2015. I wanted choices. I told them we had to begin to put faces to our hopes of having a say in who presides over our nation’s affairs in 2015. I was half-hoping my friends will ignore me and proceed with setting ‘Ps’ and chit-chatting about D’banj and Tonto Dikeh. As it turned out, I was wrong. I received the highest number of feedback on my Timeline since I subscribed to the Social Networking site; suggesting that Nigeria’s ‘Twitteratti’ may well play a part in who becomes Nigeria’s next President IF they put their money where their keypads are.
Here were a few Tweets from my staggered, impromptu polling:
1. Jibrin Isa @baloli: Rev Kukah/Fashola, El-rufai/Donald Duke, Utomi/Ribadu
2. Prince Kumachivir @kumadprince: PDP=Goodluck/Sambo, Buhari/Abike Dabiri
3. Abd-wahab @ogunmade: Then note mine pls—(a) Buhari (b)Fashola (c) Aregbesola
4. Yahaya Abdullah Jaji @yahajaji: Adams Oshiomhole
5. Boss @23rdboss: Ken Nnamani made a bold statement during Obj’s 3rd term attempt.
6. Emeka Emeh @DAT9JACHAP: Ken Nnamani, Buhari, Ribadu, Oby Ezekwesili, Fashola
7. Otunba Bamidele @emma_dele: GMB for a single term with a mandate to jail at least at least 50,000 crooks. Then hand over to Oby Ezekwesili
8. M.S Hassan @Emveepee_1 : My suggestions are GMB/FASHOLA or FASHOLA/OBY EZEKWESILI
9. Udorah A.N ESQ @ArinzeNathaniel: I will choose Fashola and Ngige/ Fashola for President and Ngige for Vice
10. Aliyu Ardo Ibrahim @ArdoAliyu: Muhammadu Buhari ably assisted by Oshiomhole
11. Adexbabie @ogunlesia: Mine is Fashola/Oby Ezekwesili
There were more Tweets tumbling through my Timeline all night and up until the next day. If the elections were held on my Timeline on the day, Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola would have emerged Nigeria’s next President! But the reality is; the elections will be held on the streets. Here is how Nigeria’s burgeoning social media population could begin to make a difference:
We will begin to get politically active as quickly as possible, because our nation needs us. We may not be able to choose Nigeria’s next President on our often congested Timelines, but we could start by sensitizing the people on the streets in our little corners of the country. The consensus pairing from the feedback I received hinted at a Fashola/Oby Ezekwesili or a GMB/Oshiomhole combo. These are early days yet and the intra-party politicking could alter a lot of factors before 2015, but we have to work with images in our minds between now and when the political parties hold their conventions. We have to arrive at names, hold referendums, glean through credentials of possible candidates and present our choices to the Nigerian people before the 1st ballot is cast in anger in 2015. The time for ‘siddon look’ is well and truly over. And it should be gone for good.
We have a working template called the #20MillionYouthsFor2015. Please, proceed to the website here: www.my20millionyouthsfor2015.org. Kindly register, download the Roadmap and spread the gospel of change as much as you can.
Our target is to enlist 20 million Nigerians who will begin to scream ‘change’ from cyberspace until that scream metamorphoses into a deafening roar on the streets before 2015. Our primary target will be to enlist 5 million people by year’s end. In between, we will conduct opinion polls on the best Man/Woman for the job, sensitize ordinary folks and win over new converts from market places to drinking bars. We will also organize televised debates where prospective candidates will have to tell the Nigerian people what they have to offer in brass tack terms. There will be no ducking these debates because ourbargaining chip will reside in our numbers. We will hold all the aces. This is one Movement that could redefine the course of our country’s history forever.
Here is your chance to become a part of one long lasting change process. We will swim against the tide most of the time—cynics will sneer at us, fifth columnists may infiltrate our ranks (please be mindful), but we will not be swayed, because not one Nigerian is greater than the sum of its parts. This is no journey for the faint hearted or the lily livered. I believe in you. I believe we can do this– hand in hand, step by step, brick by brick, tweet by tweet and eyeball to eyeball. This is Nigeria’s call. Please obey!
So, can we realistically elect Nigeria’s next President with the connivance of several Social Media platforms at our disposal? By 2014, if we keep the momentum going, we will realize that man was first put on the moon through dint of hard work and doses of belief; and electing a President could be small fry in comparison. We have a few months yet. Let’s do this!!!
Please share this piece as much you can. Change is a collective effort. The author is on Twitter as @egbas
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