SOCIALMEDIABITS

Last week, a pact between presidential hopefuls unravelled, Leah Sharibu cried for help, and the two most powerful women in the world visited Nigeria. It was all documented on social media... ‘

Throughout last week, President Buhari trended on twitter for different reasons. It started as early as Sunday, at the opening ceremony of the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association where he said the rule of law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest.

At the end of the week, the president was chided by the lawyers’ body: any national security concerns by the government must be managed within the perimeters and parameters of the law.

Meanwhile, a Financial Times report said that American President Donald Trump, after meeting Buhari at the White House in April, described his visitor as lifeless.

Obviously, this statement was latched on to by his opponents and the jokes were in the hundreds on social media. But President Buhari swiftly reacted and said he was fit and sprightly.

In fairness to the Nigerian President, he later went on to host the leaders of Germany and Britain, before jetting off to China to attend a forum on China-Africa relations.

Angela Merkel and Theresa May also met with many other stakeholders in the country, which could easily have gone below the radar if not for social media.

During a meeting between Merkel and Buhari, the latter said Nigerians emigrating through the deserts of North Africa to cross the Mediterranean into Europe were undertaking the dangerous mission at their own risk, which is a painfully obvious fact. It’s almost funny if it wasn’t such a serious issue.

You might understand why they take the risk, considering the plight of Leah Sharibu, one of the Dapchi girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in February.

All other girls captured were subsequently released but Sharibu – a Christian - ; was held back “for refusing to renounce her faith”. An audio tape of her pleading made the rounds on twitter; the presidency subtly questioning its authenticity in a tweet while presidential spokesman Femi Adeshina made light of the issue oin an interview. Again, he was taken to the cleaners on social media.

Politics season is well and truly on, and the seemingly impossible task of an outlier becoming a serious contender for the country’s top post even became more improbable as a PACT between political underdogs Fela Durotoye, Kingsley Moghalu and a few others to support a consensus candidate was discarded by Moghalu.

In case you were wondering, PACTc stands for Presidential Aspirants Coming Together. Cool acronym, not so cool outcome.

Politics is probably the reason why Davido is undergoing his NYSC and making a big show of it; literally.

With Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun bedevilled by allegations of skipping NYSC and obtaining a fake exemption certificate (which if true means she’s unfit for the office she occupies); and Davido’s uncle, Senator Ademola Adeleke - who is contesting to be governor of Osun State – also facing certificate forgery issues of his own, it is no wonder that Davido is, in his own words, tying up loose ends.