First of all, let me commend Yvonne Nelson for starting the hashtag #DumsorMustStop on social media. Every celebrity who has used it so far has advanced the cause. It took them really long to realize this was needed but at least it’s here—and it has been done.

Now, let’s dig into social media campaigns and why they are so important but useless and pretty ineffective, especially when you are dealing with governments like that of Ghana, led by a dead goat.

All over the world, so many campaigns have started on social media with specific hashtags or have been brought to social media to create further awareness and pull in the crowd. Such hashtags are particularly great at getting the attention of the big media brands—and we’ve already seen the BBC World Service having picked up on Yvonne Nelson’s #DumsorMustStop.

However, the truth remains that, running a hashtag from the comfort of your bedroom or watching a generator powered TV while tweeting is easy and everyone can do that—some even tweet while on the toilet. It’s pretty cheap and cheap methods achieve nothing substantial.

If indeed the so many celebrities who have jumped on the bandwagon are serious about making sure that Dumsor stops within the shortest possible time, the pressure to be mounted on the government must be proportionate to the damage this power crisis is causing. Social media campaigns alone do not have the needed force for this. It’s good for pulling in the crowd but even that, considering the low number of Ghanaians connected to the internet, this tool wouldn’t be at its best in pulling people.

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