This week, I was in Kano attending the 6th social influencers summit. I am a fan of the annual event and I have attended all of them since it started in 2019. I have found it to be a useful rendezvous to catch up with the latest in the trilateral intersections between technology, media and social change. The digital revolution has fundamentally transformed how individuals across the globe interact, communicate, and conduct various aspects of their daily lives. Among the most impactful development in this revolution is the rise of social media, which has redefined social norms, behaviour, and interactions, especially, but not only, among the youth.
Social media platforms have transformed the ways in which ideas, trends, and behaviour are propagated. At the heart of these shifts are individuals often termed “social influencers” – people who, through content creation and networked presence, affect what others see, think, or do. While earlier theories of influence focused on mass media and celebrity endorsement, the rise of peer-to-peer networks and algorithmic recommendation systems has made influencer roles more diffuse, accessible, and powerful.
The allure of social media lies in its ability to connect users across vast distances, offering a virtual space where they can share experiences, ideas, and content in real-time. For Nigerian youth, this connectivity provides a vital link to both local and global communities, enabling them to participate in a shared cultural dialogue that transcends geographical boundaries. Unfortunately, however, the social media has created a world that is increasingly shaped by the influence of fake news and hate speech. Indeed, fake news and hate speech are becoming the markers of our time determining electoral outcomes in addition to social and political dynamics in the contemporary world.
They matter because they are narratives that are designed to confuse and disinform, to cause pain, to hurt people and to push communities to incite one another to kill and maim. The main effect of fake news and hate speech is that they make objective facts less influential in shaping public opinion. They trend and determine “news flows” because they have been designed to focus on appeals to personal belief, prejudice and emotion. Hate speech and fake news have existed for a long time but over the past decade their scale and banalization have increased significantly and become insidious in our society. This is because of the complete transformation that has occurred in the technology and use of the social media.
Mass communications have historically been structured and controlled through regulatory controls of the organisations that operate them. Strong penal, political and financial sanctions, including the threat and practice of the closure of organs provide for a strong control regime that could impose order and minimum quality in the mass media. In some instances, authoritarian regimes used their power to impose propaganda narratives and hateful speech on media organs and in such cases the structure of control was even stronger. The contemporary situation has been transformed considerably.
The structure and nature of social media today has enhanced the centralization and universalisation of the media but atomized the production of media content. There are for example 38.7 million Facebook users in Nigeria most of them producing media content. A lot of them also use pen names so their identities are not even known, which frees them to say things they know should not be said but the absence of attribution emboldens them. Regular users of X are about 7.57 million while 51 million Nigerians use WhatsApp regularly. This means that there are millions of people producing content that are not easily amenable to control. The owners of social media organs have so far resisted calls to invest sufficiently in control mechanisms and processes to curb fake news and hate speech.
We live in a post truth world that is fuelled significantly by algorithms run by tech companies and social influencers help them create agency. It is a multi-billion-dollar industry of mass surveillance, misinformation and the spread of false and targeted propaganda that was producing vast profits for the tech companies. In this new world, the main interlocutor in communication becomes a small screen on a hand-held electronic device and the target of communications are social media friends most of whom are not known to the communicator. Gradually, people became deeply engaged with people they do not know and specific forms of narratives emerge on the basis of aggregation around specific ideas and values. In the process, the values of truthfulness and respect were replaced by the numbers you can reach and the impact you can have on people and in the process producing “the triumph of the visceral over the rational, the deceptively simple over the honestly complex”. Understanding complex processes was no longer important, positions are taken on the basis of belief and opinion and interactions with social media “friends” are used to validate the position.
The agency for social influencing is governed by algorithms which are complex systems designed by platforms to personalize the user experience and maximize engagement. They determine which content users see in their feeds, in what order, and what recommendations they receive. These algorithms are sets of rules and calculations used by platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok to determine what content shows up in your feed. This system can create “echo chambers,” limiting exposure to different perspectives. Algorithms are “black boxes,” often opaque to users and researchers.
Kano is predominantly a radio society in spite of the growth of the social media. The state boasts over thirty FM radio stations and numerous television channels, both conventional and online. The internet has further expanded the media landscape, spawning more than forty online newspapers, multiple online radio stations, blogs, and podcasts. Most radio stations maintain websites and active social media accounts, providing live broadcasts and textual/audio content, thereby functioning simultaneously as radio, television, newspaper, and social media platforms. There is no surprise that the phenomenon of Sojojin Baka developed in the city. Sojojin Baka originally referred to as Yan Gwagwarmaya (social justice advocates), before they were renamed Sojojin Baka by Zulyadaini Sidi Mustapha Karaye, a Kano-based political journalist. Karaye explained:
“I observed their courage and doggedness in criticizing or defending governments, political parties, and political godfathers. On radio, they behave like army commanders issuing orders. Many were jailed, tortured, threatened, or banned, yet persisted. While soldiers wield guns, Sojojin Baka wield their tongues”
Sojojin Baka are self-appointed radio commentators who praise politicians, defend parties, or voice community concerns. Many operate full-time in this role, often with financial backing from political actors. In Kano, they are often more valued by politicians than by the electorate, enabling many to accumulate wealth and influence. Notable figures include Abdulmajid Danbilki Kwamanda (APC), Sani Garka Dambatta (APC), Alhajiji Nagoda (NNPP – Kwankwasiyya), Aminu Muhammad Adam (Labour Party), and others. It is a formal group that operates under the Gauta Club, a coalition of political commentators led by Alhaji Hamisu Danwawu Fagge.
One panel in the Summit was devoted to social influencers and one of them that was profiled was Danbilki Kwamanda. He is one of Kano’s most vocal radio-based political commentators and is a familiar voice on Rahama Radio and Vision FM Kano, hosting Sunday evening political commentary programs. He is bold and his often-controversial remarks have made him a polarizing figure in Northern Nigerian politics. Kwamanda’s greatest strength is his eloquence – the ability to communicate complex political issues in Hausa with humour, wit, and emotional appeal. His programs and social media content on Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube have built him a substantial following, making him a mobilizer, influencer, and occasional controversial figure in Kano’s political discourse.
Other social influencers profiled at the summit are as follows. Dan Bello, the skit producer battling corrupt leaders in Northern Nigeria, J.J. Omojuwa, the Twitter/X advocacy guru and the Hausa Music maestro, RaRaRa. Others are Rinu Oduola, the young lady at the heart of the #EndSARS protests and Rabiu Biyora, the Facebook agitator. They have all grown to be leading activists with significant voice that has been augmented and amplified by tech company algorithms and they are all using the power that has accrued to them to serve the politics they or their masters have chosen.
