By Hassan I. Conteh
These days social media have taken a larger share of public opinion in Sierra Leone or almost the world at large.
sub-Saharan Africa has become world’s polarized continent by social media users.
Most countries in Africa especially French speaking nations have seen dramatic changes mostly on their political culture and social life of their people.
There have been repeated protests, coup d’états and attempted coudp d’états lately in sub-Saharan Africa.
These flames of military overthrows of democratically elected governments have been largely fanned by today’s citizens journalists, better known as social media content generators.
For example, Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum, was overthrown June 26, 2023 by some senior military officers.
He is yet to be reinstated despite repeated calls by Africa Union (AU), Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), and by the United Nations (UN).
Chapters of Africa’s latest military intrusion into politics by some fearless soldiers were said to have happened alone in West Africa with one in Sudan, an east Africa long time war-zone country.
But, what seems to be a novelty on the situation in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali ( May 24, 2021), on their uprisings owing to military intervention, it is because citizens in those countries took to social media platforms thereby calling a ‘rallying support’ behind the military regimes that had ousted civilian voted governments.
Also, lots of other African citizens in other countries in east, south and north Africa became aware of the uprisings in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea Conakry through social media channels.
Two years ago, there was a deep troublesome events about SARS, a police armed-wing, in Nigeria, West Africa.
Some organized Nigerians both sport stars, celebrities, youth and young men led series of protest actions against police calling the police wing to be totally disbanded.
They simply said the police are arresting people unlawfully and killing many innocent citizens indiscriminately and in an unchecked basis.
And, thus, the social media called Twitter‘s channel was adequately used to spread messages of solidarity and nationalism among Nigerians.
The groups of protesting Nigerians were able to successfully conduct their social media protests campaign using the hastag, EndSARS.
On political sphere and on social issues, sometimes, the news on social media isn’t just true; most is fake news.
But, content owners or political commentators on State’s events, would not stop sending the ‘trash’ in these overwhelmed platforms to get others attention or score some political goals.
The fact that news is not controlled on social media or social media being regulated senders of news take huge pleasure to share out to millions of users in the world and those messages are reacted by, in many cases, almost instantly.
As this happens in other Africa countries, the same has been happening in Sierra Leone quite regularly when political confrontations always unfold.
And, it also happens every time when important matters of the State are being deliberated on.
In the past, citizens of Sierra Leone would react to comments on social media by influential anti-government social media personalities by going on streets protests and sometimes undertaking sit-down strikes. Sometimes, pro-government social media commentators skewed up debates on government’s failures.
Many people, largely the uneducated, would believe whatever information that comes from social media especially information sent through Whatsapp channels and Facebook, Sierra Leone’s mostly dominated and widely used social media.
And the behaviour patterns of most Sierra Leoneans have been reinforced as social media users often rely heavily on Whatsapp shared contents.
On the three-day Peace Dialogue Deal between the government of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the main opposition, All People’s Congress (APC), many Sierra Leoneans are closely monitoring Whatsapps channels of communication to get latest happenings on the peace talks development.
They are more on social media platforms [Whatsapp groups] than they would tend to listen to radio or watch TV or have the patience ( those who can read and write) to read out newspapers’ contents in order to get latest country’s events on daily basis.
As the peace dialogue talks supposed to end on Wednesday 18, October 2023, some Sierra Leoneans told Africa24 ‘how’ and ‘where’ they often get information on current important events happening in the country.
“I listened to an audio in which the analyst was saying the dialogue might not finish within the three days it is scheduled since government is refusing to handover the RRFs ( elections ballot casts tally slips during Sierra Leone’s June 24, 2023 general elections,” said a listener of one Whatsapp audio.
The dialogue which was mediated by AU, ECOWAS and the Commonwealth was brought about to providing an amicable solution on the impasse between the government, SLPP and APC over the latter refusal to participate in all government activities.
The opposition said President Julius Maada Bio is heading up an “illegitimate government” because he was announced a winner on June 27, 2023 after electoral commission in the country rigged and tampered voters’ ballot casts in favour of Mr. Bio against his opponent, Dr. Samura Kamara, of the APC.