Nigerians have taken to all social media platforms to vent their disappointment in the postponement of Nigeria’s general elections, as well as other issues likely to be affected by the outcome of the elections.
Facebook has revealed the most talked about subjects and topics of conversation on its platform with regards to the up-coming Nigerian elections.
Using aggregated and anonymized data from the period of December 1 2018 to January 22 2019, the findings reveal that peaks in conversation happened between January 17 and 19 2019.
The findings also lists the economy as the most talked about conversation by topic trending across most states in Nigeria (61 percent), closely followed by corruption (56 percent) and agriculture (35 percent).
Distribution of conversation by region highlights the states where conversations around elections rate from high to low.
The study also shows that conversations are heavily driven by the young, mostly 18-24 year-olds (35 percent) and 25-34 year-olds (35 percent).
Men are more than likely to be involved in conversations around the elections with 68 percent , compared to 32 percent of women.
As for the countries across Africa where the Nigeria election is being discussed most, aside from Nigeria, conversations are most prevalent across fellow West African countries, Ghana and Sierra Leone, followed by Zambia and Cameroon.
Facebook also measured conversation including posts, comments, shares, likes and reactions-related election, with all data aggregated and de-personalised. Conversations were identified based on keywords and combinations of keywords that were associated with discussions around the election.
All data is aggregated and anonymizes and percentages add up to more than 100 percent as people can mention more than one topic in a single post, or comment.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the postponement of Nigeria’s Presidential and National Assembly election to February 23 2019. As a result, the Gubernatorial elections will now hold on March 9, 2019 rather than March 3, 2019.
Jumoke Akiyode Lawanson
