Nigerians Usage Of Facebook During 2012 Occupy Nigeria Protests: Between Networked And Real Public Spheres

The 2012 Occupy Nigeria protests renewed Nigerians long agitation for good governance in all ramifications. On January 1st, 2012, the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan announced the total deregulation of oil downstream sector through the removal of fuel subsidy. The announcement generated a lot of controversy among the citizens, especially civil societies and workers’ unions which eventually led to public protests in the real public sphere and networked public sphere. It is on this basis that, this study investigates the nexus that exists between real public sphere and networked public sphere. The study found that there is a strong affinity between real public sphere and networked public sphere. This was established at the critical value: r = 0.576 and significant at 0.05 level of significance. Primarily, the study revealed that the socio-economic and political issues discussed by the online protesters motivated offline protesters during the protests. The findings of this study have, therefore, proved Facebook to be a potent new medium in connecting citizens during public protests. The study, therefore recommends, among others, that policy formulators in the country should always analyse the pros and cons of any policy critically before recommending such to appropriate governments and should involve relevant stakeholders in the formulation processes.