Digital Political Communication and Youth Electoral Participation in Nigeria’s 2023 General Election: Opportunities, Constraints and Democratic Implications

The expansion of social media has altered the ways political actors communicate with citizens and the ways citizens encounter electoral information. Nigeria’s 2023 general election provides an important context for examining this transformation because digital platforms were prominent in campaign communication, political mobilisation and public debate. This article examines the opportunities and constraints associated with social media engagement and youth electoral participation during the election. It adopts a qualitative documentary research design, drawing on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s report on the 2023 general election, the European Union Election Observation Mission’s final report, and selected scholarly studies of digital political communication in Nigeria. The analysis is organised around four themes: political information and voter education; youth mobilisation and networked participation; misinformation and polarisation; and the relationship between online engagement and formal electoral participation. The evidence indicates that social media widened access to campaign messages, enabled citizens to discuss candidates and issues, and provided channels for civic monitoring. However, the same platforms facilitated the rapid circulation of misleading content, coordinated political messaging and identity-based hostility. The article argues that online visibility should not be treated as equivalent to turnout or sustained democratic participation. Digital mobilisation is most valuable when it is connected to credible voter education, accessible electoral institutions, media literacy and protections for freedom of expression. Because the study relies on documentary sources, it does not claim to measure the independent causal effect of social media on individual voting behaviour.