Friday, 25 February 2011

Naija Votes 2011: The Facebook Aspirants

This is an update on the Facebook popularity of the more active Nigerian politicians and provides likes to follow them in the social media.



Goodluck Jonathan


June 2010: 140,176 fans
August 2010: 164,844 fans
Current:  492,576 fans

The once daily updates have now fizzled out into occasional updates as the President concentrates on day to day issues and his campaign on the ground. His fan base has grown to a staggering near half a million Nigerians. This is brilliant as he has indeed encouraged participation although recently he has turned off the ability for people to post to his wall. Whether this is as a result of not wanting to get less than favourable feedback or hopefully (and this is my true joy) stop the near lunatic daily posts riddled with sycophancy. It is indeed a good thing as I had stopped wasting time going there to here the nauseating levels of baseless praise worship.

GEJ continues to do some good things and some rather baffling ones. BUT he has steadied the ship.


June 2010: 144 Followers
August 2010: 417 Followers
Current: 6,893 Followers

As with GEJ's FB page, his Twitter account has seen a dramatic rise in followers. It is to be expected though as he is incumbent.

Babatunde Fashola


August 2010: 10,223 fans
Current: 99,249 fans


Fashola, a complete sensation in the world of Nigerian politics, has seen fans flock to his page in record numbers. He has set the pace in electioneering with daily progress reports where others are mud slinging. The future of Nigerian politics.


June 2010: 303 Followers
August 2010: 860 Followers
Current: 16,627 Followers

Unsurprisingly, his Twitter account has also see masses flock there as he Tweets almost on the hour.

Pat Utomi


July 2010: 45,818 fans
August 2010: 52,653 fans
Current: 144,229 fans

Utomi has finally declared his intention to run for the office of President.

He was at TEDxEuston in November and spoke very well to the audience of Nigerians.


August 2010: 538 Followers
Current: 881 Followers

Despite not being active on this platform since September 2009, Pat has seen an increase in the number of Followers - probably out of curiosity and expectation rather traffic driven.

Nasir El Rufai


June 2010: 38,617 fans
August 2010: 43,741 fans
Current: 101,061 fans

Despite announcing a break from active politics, Nasir has seen his fans more than double. He is not contesting any election but this does not seem to have deterred Nigerians that have flocked to his page.


June 2010: 955 Followers
August 2010: 1,042 Followers
Current: 1,840 Followers

With a break from active civic engagement, Nasir's tweets have also slowed down considerably. But still, he has seen an increase in followers to nearly double.

Nuhu Ribadu


June 2010: 28,578 Fans
August 2010: 33,463 Fans
Current: 139,785 Fans

Having secured the ACN ticket for the 2011 Presidential elections, Ribadu's fan base has grown to nearly 5 times what it was. He has also got the a flagship youth volunteer movent on Fb, Team Ribadu. The only FB candidate with a volunteer organisation behind him.


June 2010: 1,431 Followers
August 2010: 1,556 Followers
Current: 4,108 Followers

As expected Ribadu's Twitter Followers have also grown to more than 3 times what it was in August.

Buhari

I have not been able to decipher an official page for Buhari. There are so many out there with the largest having no more than 12,000 odd fans.

But interestingly an on-line poll currently gives him the early lead.

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