Is Nigerian Politics Becoming Content Creation?
- Sean
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
There was a time when Nigerian politics lived in policy papers, party manifestos, and long committee sessions no one televised.
Now? It lives on timelines.
The shift didn’t happen overnight. But somewhere between livestreamed plenaries, clipped arguments on X, and campaign TikToks edited like music videos, politics stopped being just governance. It started becoming content.
“What we are witnessing is the rise of Nigerian politics as content creation — a structural evolution shaped by algorithms, media incentives, and audience behaviour.”
And when politics becomes content, governance risks becoming performance.
This is not about personalities.
It’s about structure.
Incentives.
Algorithms.
And a media ecosystem that now rewards the sharpest clip, not the deepest policy.
Nigerian Politics as Content Creation: How Optics Overtook Policy
If you watch political communication today, you’ll notice something: speeches are shorter, statements are punchier, and confrontations feel… curated.
Why?
Because the primary audience is no longer the room. It’s the replay.
A heated exchange in the National Assembly isn’t just a disagreement; it’s a potential 45-second viral clip.
A dramatic walkout isn’t just protest; it’s a thumbnail.
A sharp insult isn’t just rhetoric; it’s engagement.
In the age of livestreams and instant reposts, optics travel faster than policy.
And optics are measurable.
Views.
Retweets.
Shares.
Trends.
A detailed tax reform proposal may take 20 pages to explain.
A cutting one-liner about “failed leadership” fits perfectly into 12 seconds.
Guess which one performs better on social media?
Politics has adjusted accordingly.
The Collapse of Long-Form Policy Communication
Long-form political communication used to mean white papers, televised debates, investigative interviews, party manifestos that people actually read.
Today, attention is fragmented.
Few voters read full policy documents.
Even fewer sit through hour-long policy discussions.
Newsrooms, pressured by traffic metrics, slice speeches into clickable highlights.
Podcasts and talk shows prefer conflict-heavy segments because that’s what clips well.
The result?
Policy is compressed into slogans.
“Renewed hope.”
“Rescue mission.”
“People first.”
These phrases are not meaningless. But they are incomplete.
Complex governance issues—subsidy reforms, security restructuring, fiscal federalism—cannot survive inside viral formats without being oversimplified. And oversimplification often distorts reality.
When long-form disappears, nuance dies quietly.
Performative Governance: Governing for the Camera
There’s a subtle but dangerous evolution happening: decision-making is increasingly shaped by how it will look online.
Press briefings are staged for shareability.
Site inspections become photo ops.
Heated committee moments become theatrical.
Even humanitarian visits are documented with carefully framed imagery.
None of this is new. Politics has always involved image management.
What’s new is the scale and speed.
Today, governance is documented in real time. Leaders know that every movement can trend within minutes.
The incentive, therefore, shifts:
Not “What policy works best?”
But “What plays best?”
This is performative governance—when the appearance of action becomes as important, or sometimes more important, than the outcome.
You see it when announcements outpace implementation.
You see it when grand declarations trend, but follow-up quietly disappears.
You see it when outrage cycles last 48 hours and then reset.
Politics becomes episodic. Governance becomes serialized content.
Media Incentives: The Algorithm Loves Drama
It’s easy to blame politicians alone.
But the ecosystem matters.
Traditional media now competes with influencers.
Influencers compete with meme pages.
Meme pages compete with citizen journalists. Everyone competes for attention.
And attention rewards drama.
An explosive exchange between lawmakers will dominate headlines faster than a meticulous budget breakdown.
A viral gaffe will travel further than a quiet but effective policy rollout.
Algorithms do not reward subtlety.
They reward engagement.
And engagement spikes around outrage, conflict, spectacle.
This changes newsroom priorities.
It changes editorial framing.
It changes what gets amplified.
Even political journalists, under pressure to stay relevant, may lead with the most sensational quote rather than the most consequential detail.
When the media ecosystem tilts toward theatrics, politicians adapt.
Are Voters Consuming Politics Like Entertainment?
Here’s the uncomfortable question: are citizens participating in this shift?
Scroll through comment sections under political posts. Notice the language.
“Drag him!”
“She finished him!”
“Clap back!”
“Mic drop!”
These are entertainment phrases.
Political moments are discussed like rap battles.
Debates are treated like boxing matches.
The focus shifts from policy substance to who “won” the exchange.
This does not mean voters are unserious. It means the format encourages entertainment-style consumption.
In Lagos traffic, between work deadlines, with data bundles shrinking, the easiest way to follow politics is through short clips and trending hashtags. It’s efficient. It’s digestible.
But it also risks reducing civic engagement to fandom.
When supporters defend politicians the way fans defend artists, accountability becomes emotional instead of structural.
And democracy suffers quietly.
What Happens When Performance Replaces Governance?
The danger isn’t that politicians use social media.
Digital communication can increase transparency and access.
The danger is substitution.
If announcements replace implementation.
If outrage replaces oversight.
If viral moments replace measurable results.
Then governance becomes a stage.
Budgets may still be passed.
Policies may still exist.
But public discourse orbits around spectacle, not impact.
And when spectacle dominates, long-term reform loses to short-term applause.
Infrastructure doesn’t trend.
Procurement transparency doesn’t go viral.
Institutional reform doesn’t generate memes.
But those are the things that build nations.
This Is a Structural Shift, Not a Moral Failure
It’s tempting to frame this as decline. But it’s better understood as evolution.
The communication environment has changed. Politics has adapted.
The real question is not whether politicians create content. They will.
The question is whether institutions, media, and citizens can rebalance incentives so that substance becomes as visible as spectacle.
Can newsrooms invest again in explanatory journalism?
Can voters reward depth, not just drama?
Can political actors use digital platforms for transparency rather than theatre?
Because if the current trajectory continues unchecked, governance risks becoming a series of episodes designed for engagement rather than impact.
And democracies are not meant to be binge-watched.
They are meant to be built.
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