Celebrity Politicians on Social Media: Redefining the Notion of Politics and Governance in Nigeria in the Digital Era

Abstract

This study examines the influence of social media-driven celebrity politicians on public perception, political communication, and governance in Nigeria. Drawing on the growing intersection of celebrity culture, digital media, and politics, the study advances a context-specific analytical distinction between two categories of celebrity politicians: CP1, comprising conventional politicians who cultivate celebrity-like status through political visibility, social media engagement, and persona branding, and CP2, comprising individuals who transfer pre-existing fame from entertainment, sports, business, or other fields into political participation. A qualitative research design was adopted, using four Focus Group Discussions involving 30 purposively selected participants comprising political analysts, youths, journalists, and media professionals from Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Data were collected between 2 and 4 April 2025 through guided discussions, audio recordings, and field notes, and analysed using an iterative Explanation Building Model involving familiarisation, coding, categorisation, thematic development, comparison, and explanation building. The findings indicate that participants perceived social media as a significant environment for constructing and sustaining political visibility, personal brands, and celebrity-oriented political identities. However, they distinguished online popularity from political competence and governance performance, expressing concerns about personality-centred communication, entertainment, misinformation, image management, and weakened attention to accountability and substantive policy issues. The findings support wider scholarship on the personalisation and mediatization of politics while extending it by demonstrating that political celebrity emerges through different pathways with potentially distinct implications for public perception and governance. The study concludes that digital political visibility should not substitute for competence, policy engagement, transparency, and accountability. It recommends stronger media and digital literacy, issue-based political communication, critical citizen evaluation, and greater emphasis on governance performance in assessing political actors in Nigeria.