POLITICAL CYBER-ACTIVISM AND YOUTHS INTENTION TO VOTE IN THE 2023 GENERAL ELECTION OF NGERIA
Political Cyber-Activism has become an important tool for the actualisation of Nigerian youths’ agitation for better and participatory governance. In the build-up of the 2023 general elections, the number of activism and conversations were quite high on social media hence, it was assumed that many Nigerians especially youth will vote in the 2023 elections. Statistics from INEC however showed a decline in the 2023 registration of voters from the 2019 general election. Given the fact that the youth constituted a majority in the number of registered voters and whereas, previous studies have affirmed the influence of political cyber activism in political participation, the study examined how political cyber-activism on Twitter and Facebook affected the intention of youths to vote during the 2023 general election. The uses and gratification theory and agenda-setting theory provided theoretical justifications. From a population of 50,765 University of Lagos undergraduates, a sample size of 422 was calculated while the multi-stage sampling technique was used to get the final respondents. Questionnaire was the survey instrument and administration was online through departmental WhatsApp platforms. Findings revealed that youths involvement in political issues on social media will not positively influence their intention to vote (β = -0.070, t = -1.364, p>0.05). In other words, youths’ involvement in political issues on social media possibly cannot be used to determine their intention to vote. It is therefore recommended that political organizers and activists who seek to engage and mobilize youths for political engagement through the social media; understand the specific needs and motivations of individuals.
Political Cyber-Activism, Youth, Intention to Vote, Social Media, Social Mobilization, Political Participation.