Here are 4 reasons African leaders and political elites want social media dead in Africa

They fear the call for good governance and accountability on them and owing to this, governments in Africa are promulgating laws and issuing directives to check and clamp down on citizens’ activities on the platform.

Larry Madowo, A journalist with the Kenyan NTV said during an interview with Business Insider SSA that the government is afraid of accountability and fear of losing control over the public discourse.

“Social media has allowed a lot of Africans to put power into their own hands, hold government accountable, call out corruptions, demand for transparency and accountability."

"And a lot of these need to happen more. … What you see in Africa is a government that is afraid of accountability and fear of losing control of the narration of public discourse."

In Africa, many of the countries have social media under surveillance including Nigeria. while Sudan and Ethiopia had placed a total ban on social media since 2014.

This has therefore prompted questions of why African leaders and political elites are afraid of social media?

These are possible answers to these questions.

1. It is an enlightenment and liberation tool

In Africa, the Internet and social media have turned out to be a tool for citizen empowerment and government engagements. Many citizens are using the platforms to confront, contain and hold their politicians accountable.

One power the youths and citizens never in the continent now lies in social media thus, creating a threat to the political power of the near authoritarian-styled political regimes in Africa.

2. Social media to involve the youth in politics

Social media, which in the advanced world, has become a potent tool for political mobilisation in Africa. The youths are increasingly engaging political leadership in their country and are also driving political and social discourse through this platform.

The social media has also taken a place of traditional media which government exercises some control over. Interestingly, the use of social media by the youths now makes it seem government is no longer dictating the public sphere.

Facebook and other social media platforms are now being used to debate political issues such as good governance among others.

With these, the political structure of most countries is now being contested and has become non-definitive like before. A situation current political class in Africa detests and are moving to curtail.

3. Freedom of Information

Social media has made information about government activities open for everyone as it limits the secrecy in government activities.

Nowadays, there is nothing in government that is safe from the public eye as access to social media increase what people know about their government. In Africa, knowing too much about the government and its activities is a taboo.

But with social media, Freedom of Information has seemingly become a threat to the government as it seeks to control the quantity and quality of information available to the people. Hence, the need to curtail the power of social media.

4. An opportunity for democracy, transparency and accountability in governance

One last crime of social media in Africa is serving as a tool in the call for accountability and transparency in government.

At various time, citizens in many African countries have used social media platforms to push the government to act as well as held them accountable for some actions. In Nigeria, #OpenNASS campaign made the Nigeria’s Parliament disclose its annual spending in 2017. This is the first since the return of democracy in 1999.

Many of these African countries are also doing all to avoid the occurrence of anything that has a semblance of Arab Spring within their territories. So, they would rather prefer to be undemocratic than risk political power for the freedom of their citizens.

With all these outcomes, the free reign of social media in Africa would be a battle that would last for a long time. Many governments in the region will always be up in arm to safeguard their cherished political power and dynasty.

Here are 4 reasons African leaders and political elites want social media dead in Africa

Social media monitoring is currently the most popular policy in Africa. Governments in the continent are expressing their fear about the potency of these platforms.

Enhance Your Pulse News Experience!

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!