▪︎As Atiku Abubakar, Olawepo-Hashim enjoy top ratings in quarterly report
The social media engagement report by Abuja-based digital research and communication outfit, Grand Plan, has rated former Vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and former presidential candidate, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim as online most engaging presidential hopefuls in the country.
The quarterly report, which was released over the weekend also showed that, apart from the advocacy of southern governors forum demanding zoning of presidency to the south, presidential hopefuls from the region were not doing enough to engage the populace, unlike their counterparts from the north, who were aggresively communicating with the people, noting that the top four (4) most engaging presidential hopefuls were from the north.
The social media engagement quarterly report by Grand Plan is the aggregation of social media engagements of political leaders in the two major political parties, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), especially those seeking to take over from president Muhammadu Buhari after his second term in office on May 29, 2023.
In a statement by the Executive Director of Grand Plan, Mr Abdulrazaq Hamzat, social media engagement report paid special attention to the online activities of political leaders in Nigeria and the quarterly report was the combination of the monthly social media engagements of potential presidential hopefuls in the country.
“Aspirants from the northern part of the country occupied the top 4 spots in the report, while those from the south are trailing, indicating low online public engagements by aspirants from southern part of the country in both the ruling APC and opposition PDP.”.
“The low engagement level of politicians from southern part of the country is strange, considering the growing advocacy for power shift to the region, especially by Southern Governor’s Forum,” Hamzat said.
Former Vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and a former presidential candidate, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim are the two most engaging political leaders in Nigeria for the past three (3) months.
Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) emerged tops, while Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) came second in the quarterly report.
Since the commencement of the monthly social media engagement report three months ago, Atiku Abubakar has won the top position back-to-back in August and September, being the only one aspirant to do so, while Gbenga Olawepo Hashim won the top position once, in the month of July.
Atiku Abubakar has a convincing lead, with 460,000 engagements in the last three months, while Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim has 328,400 engagements.
Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki emerged third in social media engagements in this quarter, with 292,500 engagements despite falling to 4th position in the September report, followed by Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, who emerged 4th with 141,000 engagements in the quarter, as well as emerged second most engaging for the month of September.
While Atiku Abubakar, who emerge tops mostly focused on social activities and engagement all through the quarter, Olawepo-Hashim, on the other hand, mostly put searchlight on governance issues, ranging from economy, national unity, security, foreign affairs, job creation, education, etc.
Also, Vice-president of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Chairman of Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi and other presidential hopefuls from the south trailed their northern counterparts.
Professor Yemi Osinbajo emerged most engaging presidential hopeful from the South, with over 109,000 engagements, followed by Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State with 52,400 engagements, both of whom were trailing Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim and Governor Yahaya Bello in the ruling party.
A glance at Olawepo-Hashim’s online page in the past three months will prepare readers for real engagement on key governance issues affecting the country and the direction his government would take if elected can be easily deduced and adequately engaged.
The same cannot be said of other presidential hopefuls.
Following a ban on popular micro-blogging platform, twitter, few months ago (June 5, 2021), Nigerian politicians have become more active on Facebook and most of them have made the platform their preferred medium of communication with the people and this report is based on Facebook engagements.
Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world, with over 2.8 billion users. It is also by far, the most popular social media platform in Nigeria with over 65% control.
While there are over 104 million internet users in Nigeria, only 33million of them are on social media with Facebook, having over 30% of the total internet users and more than 95% of social media users, with its over 31 million Facebook users in Nigeria, some of whom also use other social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapechat, tiktok, etc.
Data on each of the candidates’ were realistic because “Facebook represents the broad spectrum of voters who will vote in 2023.”
Increasing engagements imply voters’ growing interest in the candidates while a decreasing result reflects voters’ disenchantment.
Contrary to popular belief which claimed that suspended micro-blogging platform, Twitter is the platform for youths in the country, available records show that Facebook still remains the dominant social media platform for young adults.
65 percent of Facebook users are under the age of 35, which means that they fall under the age demographics of Millennials and Generation Z.
It is also important to note that between 25 and 34 year olds accounted for 32.5 percent of Facebook users, whereas just 2.9 percent of users were aged between 55 and 64 years old.
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