NEW MEDIA INFLUENCE ON ELECTIONEERING CAMPAIGN IN NIGERIA

Abstract
The 21st century can be described as the age of information technology. Technology runs almost all human endeavors, including politics. In recent times, politicians have swerved from the use of traditional media (broadcast and print) to the use of social media to carry out their political and electoral campaigns in order to realize their political ambition. One of the major challenges of electioneering in the new media influence is that, due to the faceless nature of the internet, social media spreads propaganda, false information, and hate speeches about an electoral candidate. These go viral and are used to manipulate the electorate. The researcher examines the new media influence on electioneering campaign in Nigeria. Findings show that the new media influence, played a major role in mobilizing people, creating awareness, as well as participation and circulation of information about candidates. It therefore recommends, among other things, that regulatory methods on what should and should not be posted on new media influence should be put in place by the governing bodies of various social media platforms. This will help to censor and check information that spread on social media platforms. This way, campaigns that use and encourage hate speeches or instill violence will not be posted or published. The method of analysis is descriptive and the data are largely drawn from secondary literature.

Statement of Problem
The influence of new media as a formidable force for social engineering and political electioneering has continued to grow. The technology is participatory, interactive and cost-effective. This has made it the medium of the moment as far as political communication and participation are concerned.
The problems associated with the usage of social media in elections in Nigeria a quite cumbersome. This is associated with the problem that Nigeria has not reached the stage of the technology coverage whereby everyone has access to the internet whereby it is cheap and accessible as in the case of the United States of America whereby social media is accessible to virtually everyone in the country.

The problems associated with electioneering campaigns and processes in Nigeria have been a cause of major concern. A major problem of elections in Nigeria is the process of communicating political ideas to the masses. Overtime, the failure of those seeking elective positions in Nigeria to adequately and effectively communicate their ideas, credentials and blue print for development to their electorates has led to the voting of wrong people into power and this has led to a lot of accidental public servants who just go into power for personal gains and other selfish reasons. This has regrettably led to the lack of credible and competent people to lead the nation which precipitates to lack of development, corruption and lack of economic and social vision of the country.

1.3 Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this study is to assess the new media influence on the Electioneering campaign in Nigeria.

Specific, objectives are to:
1. Determine the role new media played in the political participation of Nigerians during campaign.
2. Examine the lapses in the use of new media for election and electioneering campaign in Nigeria.
3. Discover the benefits of the use of new media in electioneering campaign