By Sename Kojah

The call was made by Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore while speaking on the “Holding Government Accountable” panel at the Social Media Week which held at The Landmark Event Center, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Young Nigerians have been asked to move from holding people in positions of authority to account on social media alone and drop their devices, get on their feet and save the country.

Sowore who is also founder of Sahara Reporters, a citizen journalism outfit, said ” I can tell you that nothing has worked as much as social media in Nigeria in terms of holding government accountable because it is beyond their reach; it is accountability beyond borders but I have to say that it has its own downside to the extent that if you think social media has all the power and you don’t do what is necessary next, government starts to adjust to social media, and so you must move from just revealing everything and holding them accountable. For you to have the best result, you have to drop your devices and get on your feet, and that was why social media was powerful in Egypt but until the Egyptians dropped their devices, they couldn’t have the Arab Spring”.

Sowore called on young people to work hard by ensuring that they get their PVC’s, vote and monitor the process around the election to ensure that there is an “Equatorial Spring” in Nigeria that will usher in a new era of politics in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He encouraged, “a new generation of Nigerians who are children of democracy. They are the secret to defeating the old brigands. The thing that happened with voters is a planned thing; they knew there are 22 million students who are voters, they had to keep you out of your school because they know that you are the angriest Nigerians and you are about to punish them with your vote regardless of what they have done to you. Please find your way to your polling unit and vote these guys out”.