Nigerians have found a new weapon with the twitter hashtag. Government officials and popular citizens can now be tried and convicted in the court of twitter opinion

When you become a twitter target, evidence is circulated in form of pictures, videos and leaked document. and most of the times civil societies get involved to demand results and accountability.

These are three recent twitter hashtags that forced the presidency into action

#EndSARS…currently ongoing. 

Police brutality in Nigeria has soared to an alarming rate in the country, the police force has been degraded to robbers in uniform.

Few days ago, Pandemonium broke out after the SARS police officers shot a young man on the arm for no apparent reason. The angry neighbors who witnessed the incident stormed after the police men who made a hasty retreat.

Nigerians took to twitter to share their sad stories at the hands of SARS Officials. #ENDSARS was activated. The campaign is gone on for about 4 days now and Nigerians on twitter are not backing down.

Judging by people Stories, twitter comments & videos. It’s better to meet an armed robber than to encounter officials of SARS. Cases of rape, Killings, extortion and indiscriminate arrest has been reported.

Results of the #ENDSARS campaign

Inspector general of police has called for a restructuring of SARS. Ibrahim Idris issued the directive on Monday afternoon for all police commissioners to cease issuing orders to SARS operatives at state level across the country, SARS officers will now be controlled by the superintendent of police.

A complaint registration number has been circulated to report alleged malpractices by SARS officials

Presidential hopefuls Atiku and vice president Yemi Osibanjo sympathized with Nigerians who suffered immensely under SARS (not enough)

The senate has directed an adhoc committee to investigate the issue.

The police is fighting back by threatening to arrest Segalink and activist that started the Hashtag.

#MainaReinstatement.

This hashtag which trended for days threw the Buhari administration into finger pointing and denials like little kids: it wasn’t me.

Abdulrasheed Maina ex pension boss was under investigation during Jonathan administration for diverting millions of Naira in Pension funds. He eventually escaped into Dubai with EFCC hot on his heels.

Fast forward years later top members of the Buhari administration facilitated his reinstatement into the ministry with a promotion

Premium times a leading Nigeria new site broke the report giving full details of how how he was reinstated.

Twitter went ballistic with #fugitivemaina. #mainareinstatement. The Buhari administration was heavily criticized

Results of the #reinstatement hashtag

Buhari ordered that he be fired with immediate effect, EFCC sealed off some of his properties.

Buhari administration set up a kangaroo committee to investigate Maina reinstatement. There were several calls for Abubakar Malami the AGF who helped orchestrate his reinstatement to be fired.

All the letters approving his reinstatement was repeatedly circulated in the internet.

Head off service denied any involvement in his reinstatement and claimed that Buhari knew about it.

#resume or resign;

Buhari’s long absence due to ill-health put him at odds with Nigerian civil societies. According to them, it was wrong for the president to be away for almost 90 days without addressing Nigerians.

In-spite of the fact that he put Yemi Osibanjo in charge while he was away, they reiterated that Nigerians deserve to know if their elected president is capable to of carrying out his duties

#resume or resign hashtag was created and Nigerians gave their 2 cents on Buhari’s long absence from office. Bets were even carried out to predict if he would come back or not.

The fallout:

Resume or resign which started as a twitter hashtag went live with a protest at Unity fountain Abuja

The protest which was led by Charly boy gave Buhari a 21 day Ultimatum to resume or face Legal action.

Members of the ruling party and opposition went to see him and even took pictures with him to douse the agitation

The president’s spokesperson Femi Adesina was forced to address the press. According to him. Buhari would stand by the law at all times.

Of course the president was not forced out of office, but it got everyone in the presidency panicked and forced to defend their position.

Twitter has given us a voice, we must stump, tweet and add our voice to issues that matter to us.