Bauchi public affairs commentator decry misusage of social media by youth

By Mohammed Kaka Misau

A Bauchi based political Analyst and public affairs commentator, Babangida Ahmed has decried the misusage of social media by youths, mainly to vilify political opponent of their paymasters.

The analyst who is also a traditional title holder of Katukan Misau while speaking in an interview with our Corresspondent said social media users directly connected to various political parties are guilty of such behavior.

“My take on the activities of social media users, most especially, the ones that have direct connection to various political parties are in the habit of dishing out all kinds of information”, he said.

“One worrying aspect of it all, is that they are not professionals, it’s just because they possesses android phones and they are misusing it”, Babangida pointed out.

He accused the politicians of conveniently using such gullible social media handlers to achieve their selfish interest by dishing out different kinds of unverified information.

“The major problem with them is because of unprofessionalism, they are not professionals in journalism practice which makes them to be committing a lot of blunders”, the Katukan Misau said.

He added: “They send reports with unverified facts, they spread rumors, without confirming information, they just post stories on social media which is not good and does not augur well for the society”.

The political analyst lamented that despite the inadequacies of social media handlers, politicians feel comfortable by making use of them while trying to sell themselves to the general public.

The analyst acknowledged the importance of social media users to the politicians by sending information to the general public about policies and Programmes of government or what a political party is doing.

He however regretted that, on the other hand, they are not helping the government or that particular party they are working for by not reporting the plights of the general public for their paymasters to see.

“They are only interested in posting only achievements of government or political party, they don’t post the difficulties the members of the public are passing through, their information is just a one-sided”, he further explained.

“They don’t tell the public what are the shortcomings of government or of a politicians, all they do is to be singing praises”, the analyst stated.

He called on the politicians who are in the habit of using the social media to tell lies to desist from doing so, as according to him, it’s not a good thing.

“A politician is supposed to be known for telling the truth because he is after the people’s hearts and he is representing them, politics should be something that is straight forward, politicians should be known for telling the truth and doing what will benefit the voters”, he opined.

The political analyst therefore advised politicians with the habit of using the social media to vilify their opponents to desist from doing so as according to him, it will one day backfire.

He appealed to the politicians to ensure that the social media users who are mostly youths without jobs are empowered meaningfully for them to become self reliant.

“Alhough most of them have not gone to school but some among them are educated, some of them have degree in education, others have degree in accounting, some have diploma or NCE among others”, he said.

While commending some politicians who use to absorb some of the social media handers by giving them appointments after winning election, the analyst equally appealed to them not to be aligning themselves with bad and selfish politicians who would want them to be posting rumors and lies to vilifying other people.

“The politicians should know that if you use social media to vilify someone today tomorrow another person will use them against you”, he said.

“There’s a difference between political thugs and social media users, but unfortunately some selfish politicians are using these youths to bully their rivals. Any right thinking person will not feel good when he see these youths roaming the streets, they really need help”, he said.

He blamed parents for not instilling the needed parental training in their children as well as the government for not initiating viable policies that can take the youth off the streets.

While praying God to intervene in the matter, Babangida said democracy does not harbour thuggery or youth gangsterism.

He called on political office holders and well to do in the society to help towards ending the bad trend.