Abstract
The study assessed the effect of radio political advertising and the participation of the etche electorate in the February re-run election in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study was motivated by the tense political atmosphere that pervaded the political landscape in the state prior to the gubernatorial and the senatorial election due to the incumbent governor’s defection to an opposition party and the resolve of other candidates in that election to take over the reins of power from the incumbent governor. To solicit votes or win the support of the electorate, candidates used political advertising among other strategies to sell their personality and party manifestoes.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the study
In recent times, politics is expressed through political parties and are created to achieve the goals of a society. Before independence, deliberate and systematic political activities were limited to speeches, rallies box etc. Therefore, it will not be out of place to admit that the influence of political advertising on the voting behavior of the electorate is at the root of any political process. However, the real and or imagined power of the mass media which radio is one of them to mould attitudes and behavior especially as it pertains to outcome of electioneering campaign has been a subject of debate. Therefore, this project seeks to find out if political advertising has been able to mould voters voting behavior. The nomination and election of candidates into various political offices are important in party politics and representative democracy. In every political party, such nominations are made at national and state conventions preceding the presidential, gubernatorial, and other local elections (Achor and Moguluwa, 2012). Prior to the 2015 general elections in Nigeria and indeed Rivers State, political parties through keenly contested or ‘stage-managed’ primaries produced candidates who vied for various political offices. Securing a party’s candidature is a hurdle that must be passed using intra-party connections, personal contacts, and aspirant’s credentials or achievements. After securing a party’s candidacy, the candidate and the political party have an uphill task to winning during general elections (Achor, 2011). Irrespective of the level of political campaign, the electorate (voters) is the target. They buy the political product if the product meets their needs; they are also the recipients of political messages that solicit their support or vote. The voters may vary in their expectations which could range from a desire for total change from ‘politics as usual’, vibrant and visionary political leadership, to detribalized leader with holistic electorate-focused programs (Achor, Nwachukwu and Udensi, 2016). As targets in political campaign (i.e. electioneering and voter mobilization campaigns), the voters are influenced through various political marketing strategies and programs. The array of political marketing strategies provides information which voters need to assess candidate’s capability in satisfying their needs. The contents of the campaign blue-print are the expressions of candidate’s objectives for seeking votes from the electorate massively employed political marketing strategies (Owuamalam, 2014). These were employed to woo voters or persuade them to vote candidate of their choice or political party. One prominent strategy adopted by the candidates was political advertising, which is a kind of advertising specifically directed to the electorate to persuade them to vote for or against a candidate. Political advertising was massively employed since there is no known cutting edge strategy that can win all the time, given the political terrain in Nigeria and particularly in Rivers State where competition is stiff. The rescheduled National Assembly and State House rerun and supplementary elections in Rivers State will finally hold today under a very tense atmosphere. The Independent National Electoral Commission will conduct the elections across three senatorial districts, eight federal constituencies and 10 state constituencies. Following court rulings that invalidated the 2015 federal and state legislative elections in the oil-rich state, INEC had conducted rerun polls on March 19, 2016. But the exercise was marred by violence mainly between armed supporters of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and those of the All Progressives Congress, APC; forcing the electoral body to suspend the polls midway. Governor Nyesom Wike is the PDP leader in Rivers while his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi, leads the APC. The race for the legislative seats is expected to be a two-horse race between both parties, although other parties are also participating in the elections. Apart from the three senatorial districts, the eight federal constituencies in which elections will hold are Akuku-Toru/Asari Toru; Degema/Bonny; Okrika/Ogu-Bolo; Etche/Omuma; Ikwere/Emohua; Khana Gokana; Eleme/Tai/Oyigbo and Opobo/Nkoro/Andoni. The state constituencies where elections will hold are Eleme, Gokana, Asari-Toru I, Asari-Toru II, Andoni, Khana II, Etche II, Ikwere, Bonny and Degema. For the elections, 10,294 electoral staff were deployed, INEC said. The police spokesperson in the state said 28,000 officers had been deployed. The huge deployment of police officers – aside military personnel deployed by the Army and the Navy – is commensurate to the risk assessment taken, PREMIUM TIMES understands.
While elections will hold afresh in some places, INEC will only collate and declare results, and make returns in other areas, the Commission said. A total of 927,769 voters, representing 37 percent of 2,537,320 being total number of registered voters in the state, are eligible to cast vote across 1,840 polling units and 2,203 voting points where the rerun and supplementary elections will hold today.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Political advertising is big business in any political system. Politicians, party supporters and political parties trade on political advertising. The media are essential to democracy and a democratic election is impossible without media. A free and fair election is not only about the freedom to vote and the knowledge of how to cast a vote, but also about a participatory process where voters engage in public debate and have adequate information about parties, policies, candidates and the election process itself in order to make informed choices. This is where political advertising comes to play a role in influencing, informing and mobilizing the electorate. Advertising has become imperative in politics such that it will be difficult to divorce advertising successfully from politics. “This has led to the idea that political socialization and mobilization are achieved through effective political advertising, which may come in the form of posters, handbills, radio, television, billboard, social media and even oramedia advertising” (Ezegwu and Ezegwu 2014). It is against this back drop that the researcher intends to investigate the potency of radio political advertising and the participation of etche electorate in the February 2017 re-run election
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to ascertain the efficacy of radio political advertising and the participation of the etche electorate in the February 2017 re-run election. But to aid the completion of the study, the researcher intends to achieve the following specific objective;
- To ascertain the potency of radio advertising in Nigeria politics
- To ascertain the relationship between radio advertising and participation level of the etche electorate
- To investigate the effect political advertising on the acceptability of the candidate
- To investigate the impact of radio advertising on the development of Nigerian politics
- RESEARCH QUESTION
To aid the successful completion of the study, the following research questions were formulated by the researcher
- Is radio advertising a potent tool of politics in Nigeria
- Is there any significant relationship between radio advertising and participation level of electorate in etche election
- What is the effect of radio advertising on the credibility and acceptability of candidate in the etche election
- What is the role of radio advertising on the development of Nigerian democracy
- RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
For the successful completion of the study, the following research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher;
H0: radio advertising is not a potent tool of politics in Nigeria
H1: radio advertising is a potent tool of politics in Nigeria
H02: there is no significant relationship between radio advertising and participation of electorate in the etche election
H2: there is a significant relationship between radio advertising and participation of electorate in the etche election
- SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great importance to the leaders of political party, as the study seek to enumerate the importance of radio advertising in Nigerian politics, the
study will also be of importance to the independent national electoral commission to formulate policy that will prohibit the candidate from putting false information through radio advertisement in other to woo the electorate. The study will also be of importance to researcher who intends to embark on study in similar topic, finally the study will be useful to the department of political science as the study will add to the existing pool of literature in the discipline.
- SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study covers radio political advertising and the participation of the etche electorate in the February 2017 re-run election, but in the cause of the study there were some factors which limited the scope of the study;
Availability of research material: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study.
Time: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.
Finance: The finance available for the research work does not allow for wider coverage as resources are very limited as the researcher has other academic bills to cover.