Published Paper


Influence of Political Advertorials on Voter Education in the 2015 General Elections in North-Central Nigeria

Tiamiyu, Kabiru Adebowale & Anthony C. Ekwueme

Page: 239-249
Published on: 2022 December

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of political advertorials in educating the electorate on the need to vote during elections in Nigeria. The study focused on the 2015 general election in Nigeria with particular attention to North Central Nigeria. The population of the study was 191,554, comprising the number of state civil servants in North-Central Nigeria, while multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 382 as the sample for the study, arrived at, using the Kretcie and Morgan sampling table. After a descriptive and inferential data analysis, it was found out that there was high level of use of political advertorials for voter education in 2015 elections. Most of the respondents were exposed to political advertorials on voter education in North-Central Nigeria, since more than 90% of them read the advertorials, most of the political advertorials were written to favour certain candidates and political parties; hence the voter education content was bias, among others. It was recommended, among others, that there should be more of political advertorials regularly on the pages of Nigeria newspaper, instead of limiting such publications to the election years alone, as it will lead to consistency in the messages, thereby registering on peoples’ minds political consciousness, needed for voter education.

 

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