The heat is on and the stage is 95% set for millions of voters in the most populous country in Africa to decide who becomes their number one citizen. Nigeria’s general elections is usually one of its kind in Africa as a number of political parties and their candidates jostle for the number one seat with all fervency. Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC had announced earlier that 18 registered political parties and their candidates are in for the contest.
In their order of Alphabets, we have the Accord (A) Party with Professor Christoper Imumulen as its presidential candidate; Action Alliance (AA) with Almustapha Hamza; Action Democratic Party (ADP) with Sani Yabagi Yusuf; Action Peoples Party(APP) with Nnadi Charles Osita; African Action Congress (AAC) with Omoleye Sowore; African Democratic Congress (ADC) with Dumebi Kachikwu as well as All Progressive Congress (APC) with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
We also have the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with Professor Peter Umeadi; Allied Peoples Movement (APM) with Yusuf Mamman Dan Talle; Boot Party (BP) Adenuga Sunday Oluwafemi; Labour Party (LP) with Mr. Peter Obi; National Rescue Movement (NRM) with Osakwe Felix Johnson and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) with Mr. Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Then the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) with Mr. Kola Abiola; Social Democratic Party (SDP) with Prince Adewole Adebayo; Young Progressives Party (YPP) with Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim; and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) with Nwanyanwu Daniel Daberechukwu.
As expected, some among these political parties grew weightier in terms of popularity on social media. Although, many have continued to submit to the fact that elections are not won or lost based on social media sentiments/popularity, but SM plays a vital role in increasing the awareness and the winning chances of candidates. Of course, your competency remains hidden until you get popular.
Biografrica recently took a look at the Social Media handles of these candidates and discovered that some of them enjoy more popularity than others on the platforms in review. Below is the list of the top five candidates with the highest followers on the underlisted social media channels:
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (PDP):
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming general elections. He served as the vice president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. He ran as governor of Adamawa State in 1990, 1997 and later, in 1998, being elected before becoming Olusegun Obasanjo’s running mate during the 1999 presidential election and re-elected in 2003.
A look at his social media handles revealed that he tops the list of Nigeria’s presidential candidates with the highest social media popularity. His facebook profile reads: 1.2 million followers, his twitter handle: 4.7 million followers while his instagram handle enjoys a total of 523k followers as at January, 18, 2023.
Mr. Peter Obi (LP):
Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, a former governor of Anambra state Nigeria from March to November 2006, February to May 2007, and from June 2007 to March 2014, became the sensation of most Nigerian youths after defecting from the PDP to become the flagbearer of the Labour Party in Nigeria’s presidential race.
Obi’s facebook followers read 721,812, his Twitter followers read 2.7 million while his Instagram stands at 520k followers as at January 18, 2023 placing him second on the list.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (APC):
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate popularly called Jagaban is quite famous for a number of reasons best known by the Nigerian populace. He is a former governor of Lagos state, Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 and Senator for Lagos West during the brief Third Republic.
Except for his twitter handle which has way more followers than Sowore, Tinubu would have come fourth in this list. A look at his facebook profile has 314,657 followers. His Instagram page has 179k followers while his Twitter handle enjoys a whopping 1.6 million followers giving him a total of 2,093,657 followers in total.
Omoyele Sowore (AAC):
Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress-AAC is a household name in Nigeria. He is a human rights activist, pro-democracy campaigner, and Publisher of Sahara Reporters who became popular after his arrest by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) on August 3, 2019, for alleged treason after calling for a protest tagged “RevolutionNow”.
A look at his social media handles reveal he is not doing bad at all in the fame world. His facebook followers count 391, 320, his instagram 200k and his Twitter handle; 855.5k giving him a total of 1,446,820 followers.
Rabiu Kwankwaso:
Rabiu Kwankwaso is a former governor of Kano state from 1999 to 2003 and from 2011 to 2015. He contested the presidential primaries under the PDP in 2018 but couldn’t get the ticket to run.
Kwankwaso is currently the national leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and has been confirmed as the party’s presidential candidate at the 2023 general elections.
On social media he enjoys 189k followers on facebook, 18.5k on instagram and 321.3k followers on twitter as at January 18, 2023 making him the fifth presidential candidate in Nigeria with the highest popularity on social media.