Role of Social Media in Disaster Communication and Emergency Management in Kano State

This study examines the role of social media in disaster communication and emergency management during flood events in Kano State, North West Nigeria. Kano State experiences recurrent flooding during the rainy season that displaces communities, damages infrastructure, and claims lives, requiring effective disaster communication from emergency management agencies to the public. Social media has emerged as an important channel for warning dissemination, rescue coordination, and humanitarian response in Nigerian disaster events. This study uses a case study approach focused on the 2022 Kano State flood disaster, analysing social media activity on Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp during a three-week period of peak flooding through content analysis of 1,400 publicly accessible posts and messages. A survey of 180 flood-affected residents in Kano Municipal, Dala, and Fagge local government areas assesses information sources used, warning receipt, and social media communication behaviour during the emergency. Findings reveal that social media, particularly WhatsApp community groups, was the primary evacuation warning received by 58 percent of respondents before any official NEMA or Kano SEMA communication was issued. Community-based warning networks significantly outperformed official channels in speed but not in accuracy, with misinformation about flood boundaries circulating alongside accurate warnings. NEMA's social media activity during the crisis shows poor response time averaging 14 hours after community posts of flooding images. The study concludes that integrating community social media networks into official disaster communication systems could significantly improve early warning effectiveness in Kano State. It recommends formal community-agency social media coordination protocols for flood emergencies.

Keywords: social media, disaster communication, flood emergency, Kano State, NEMA.