Speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal Urges for More Use of Social Media in Governance

The growing use and influence of social media in governance has yielded different results – some good and some bad. As its influence grows, Nigerian leaders are getting more vocal about their standpoint on its use in governance.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal has pitched his tent in favour of social media. Over the weekend, he advocated for greater use of social media in governance.

He said this at the closing session of the 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Speaking on the “Role of social media in modern day politics”, Tambuwal said the use of social media in day to day governments offers unlimited opportunity for good governance and transparency.

“I wish to recommend that African and other developing countries should support the programs and policies that will facilitate the development of social media infrastructures in their countries,” Daily Times quoted him as saying.

He recalled that social media played a huge role during the 2011 general election in Nigeria. PresidentGoodluck Jonathan declared his decision to contest the presidential poll on Facebook and went on to win the elections. In Tambuwal’s words, the Nigerian experience with the social media has shown how “decisive” a tool it is.

In contrast to this, the Senate President, David Mark created quite a buzz some weeks ago when he advocated for a clamp down on the use of social media in governance. His comment was widely opposed across various social media platforms and blogs. Mark said the social media had been abused by youth who use it as an opportunity to insult government officials.

No doubt, both men have valid points on the use of social media in governance. It can be put to good use but often times, people use it for negative reasons.

Which side are you on? Should social media be used in governance or not?