Advocacy groups in Nigeria are using social media in an effort to counter the corruption and abuse of political power long rife in that country.

In the build-up to the recent Nigerian elections, several advocacy groups, operating under the banner ‘Enough is Enough Nigeria’, employed social media, backed by radio and television support, to mobilise young people to participate in the electoral process. Not only were Nigeria’s young people encouraged to register and vote during the April elections, they were also urged to use their mobile phones to help keep the elections fair by reporting and recording any incidents of intimidation, fraud or inefficiency. Furthermore, mobile phone users were called on to forward the results announced after counting at each polling station so they could be consolidated independently to ensure official figures were not manipulated.