ABSTRACT
The
emergency and proliferation of social media otherwise known as citizen media
has reshaped political education and mobilization in Nigeria. It offers
platform for political debates, cyber activism, political campaign and
political mobilization. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines
the Influence of Social networking on Democracy in Nigeria: An Overview of 2015
Presidential Election among students. The study is anchored on McLuhan theory on New Media.
Quantitative research design was used in which cross-sectional survey method
was adopted while the data collection instrument was questionnaire. 300 copies
of questionnaires that were administered to the three tertiary institutions
from Ogun state i.e Federal University
of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Babcock University,, Ileshan and Moshood Abiola
Polytechnic, Ojere. Findings have shown that as a result of the political
dispensation, political office holders, politicians, including president and
governors now have and manage social media account such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
among others. Political leaders and political candidate now share their
political agenda and mobilize people towards it propagation. It is recommended
that, social media can be improved to enhance better public mobilization,
sensitization and true democracy in Nigeria through citizen sensitization
programmes, registration that involve national identity card among other steps.
