The only antidote to failure is to do things differently in anticipation of a different result. This was clearly the case of the just concluded election that brought in an ex-dictator, General Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s new president.

Haven failed on three successive attempts and termed a serial failure, President Buhari declared when he lost the 2011 presidential election that he had lost total interest in the electoral process, because, of course, it was sham, devoid of the wishes and aspiration of the people.

There was a quiet tsunami happening underground, three major opposition political parties decided to form an alliance, in one big and final attempt to dislodge the PDP, a party which arrogantly arrogate itself as the untouchable party in Africa that will govern Nigeria without interruption for sixty years.

President Buhari, again was nominated to become the major challenger against the former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan who was nominated unopposed in the PDP.

In 2008, United States President Barack Obama encountered an uphill in his journey to the White House, his campaign theme; “Change” was clear and straight forward. However, despite being a black man and on the verge on making history to become the first African-American gain access to the Oval office, it was the young voters who used “social media” to the very best. In fact, Obama’s election had the highest participation of voters between 18-19 years of age ever in the United States history. Approximately 24 million young voters voted in the 2008 U.S. general election.

For Nigeria, it wasn’t necessary the “change” mantra that brought in the current president. Buhari had contested in 2011, his campaign theme was equally “change” but nobody noticed!

Technology clearly was the final decider that helped the APC re-echoed the change they preached like the second coming of Christ. Of course, the awareness in politics has more than doubled since 2011, users of social media have gone on rampage, and the synergy has been electrified. Everyone felt this, except the PDP who relied on old wines in new bottles to perform magic like it did in the past.

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In February 2015, the Minister of Communication Technology, Dr Omobola Johnson told TechRez that Nigeria active internet users were just a little above 70 million. Figure like this shows that Nigeria cyber-space is well, alive and willing to devour anyone, anytime and anywhere.
http://www.techrez.com/technology-meets-politics-how-nigeria-2015-election-was-decided/