I have recently been spending time reading the facebook pages of some presidents, especially those in Africa. I am interested in how many followers they have and the kind of issues they discuss on their facebook pages. What presidents say on their facebook pages tells us a lot about how they perceive their job. I begin here by comparing the facebook pages of the presidents of two neighboring African countries, Cameroon and Nigeria. Cameroon's president is Paul Biya and he currently has about 1700 followers on his facebook page. Goodluck Jonathan is Nigeria's president and he has over 500,000 followers. Looking at President Jonathan's page, one would imagine that he busies himself dealing with specific issues that affect the daily lives of Nigerians, such as the importance of patronizing products made in Nigeria, the price of cement, inflation, etc. The people on his page are mainly Nigerians. President Biya's page, however, is mostly outward looking. He does not talk much about Cameroon, the problems Cameroonians are facing, and what he is doing about it. His page is filled with best wishes to and from foreign dignitaries. The other things we find on his page are presidential decrees and motions of support. Nothing specific about the life people live. These two facebook pages show us the constituencies of these two presidents: Goodluck Jonathan has to go through rigorous elections in order to become president. He therefore has to attempt to fulfill the wishes of his people. Paul Biya, on the other hand, does not have to go through such elections; in fact, in Cameroon, presidentials elections are already fixed before they are held. Becuase he can rig elections whenever he wants, he does not need the support of Cameroonians. However, he needs the support of outsiders such as France and the Vatican in order to maintain a good international image - his main constituency. It is amazing what you can learn about leaders by reading their facebook pages.
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