TITLE PAGE

TRADTIONAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL MOBILISATION DURING NIGERIA’S 2011 ELECTIONS IN BENUESTATE

BY

KUSUGH, TERNENGE

BSU/SS/M.Sc/09/4614

BEING A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE POST-GRADUATE SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION, BENUE STATE UNIVERSITY, MAKURDI IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE AWARD OF MASTER OF SCIENCE (M.Sc) DEGREE IN MASS COMMUNICATION

MARCH, 2012

CERTIFICATION

We certify that KUSUGH, TERNENGE carried out this study. It is therefore approved by the undersigned on behalf of the department of Mass Communication as meeting the requirements for the award of Master of Science (M.Sc) Degree in Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, BenueStateUniversity, Makurdi-Nigeria.

KOMBOL, M.A. PhD ………………………………

SUPERVISORDATE

UGANDE, G.B. P.h …………………………………

HOD, MASS COMMUNICATION DATE

DEAN, POSTGRADUATESCHOOL ………………………………

DATE

EXTERNAL EXAMINER ………………………………...

DATE

DECLARATION

I KUSUGH, TERNENGE, BSU/SS/M.Sc/09/4614 do hereby declare that even though I have benefited from the scholarly inputs of several authors and institutions, this work is mine, which is conceived, researched and written. I therefore take exclusive responsibility for its strengths and weaknesses.

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KUSUGH, TERNENGE

BSU/SS/M.Sc/09/4614

DEDICATION

To Almighty God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My profound gratitude goes first to Almighty God, whose blessing and mercy have never cease, who has given me life, wisdom and strength to successfully carry out this noble task to the completion. You are really a loving father.

I lack words in expressing my appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Michael A. Kombol, whose despite his tight schedule has taken time to scan through my work to ensure that it meets the standard. I must admit that your constructive criticisms have made this work to be what it is today. May His Good Lord continue to build your life to the greater level.

I must not forget to thank my Head of Department, Dr. Ugande G. B.; whose assistance has built my academic skills in diverse areas including the area of research, and to all my lecturers in the department of mass communication. Your contribution towards the development of my knowledge is what will never be written it off my memory. Continue to be blessed for your goodness to me.

My warm appreciation also goes to my family members, whose contributions, I have reached to where I am today. May the Lord God continue to assist you in all your endeavors.

For if I am seen further, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of the giants. I really appreciate various scholars, whom their works I have quoted here lavishly. May the Good Lord reward all of you.

I acknowledge the effort of Rev. Fr. Dominic Shimawua, who is always beside me in times of need in the course of my programme and to my Uncle, Mr. J.T. Apeh, for his wonderful support to my life. Only God that can pay you according to what you have done to me.

To my wonderful friends Late Abulus Tooyongo Gabriel, Isaac Kise, James Adaga, fortune Ate, Samson Daka, Mtile Iornongo, Akurega Moses, Awuna Godwin and my colleagues at BIRS posted in theInformation Unit, Corporate Headquarters and Ministry of Commerce and Industries for their various supports. God bless you all.

I must acknowledge the effort of special person in my life, Miss Ruth Mbajiir Nyam, who is always concerned and curious to assist me whenever need arises. I strongly trust in God that by His Grace, our dream will surely come true.

Also to Mr. Tersoo Tse, and Mr. Ayange, for their assistance towards the actualization of this noble dream. May the Good Lord reward you abundantly.

And to Mrs. Akimbi, for handling the computer aspect of this work very carefully. The aesthetic value accorded this work is the product of your intellectual ability. God will reward you immeasurably.

My appreciation also goes to my loving classmates at the Masters class whom we were just likea family during our course work. I charge you to remain with that spirit-the spirit of unity to wherever you found yourselves; for because with that spirit of unity and cooperation, the sky is going to be your limit.

ABSTRACT

The study; “Traditional media and political mobilization During Nigeria’s 2011 Elections” concerned with the influence of traditional media on the behaviour of Benue electorates during Nigeria’s 2011 elections. The study used survey method of research with questionnaire, interview and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) as tools to elicit responses from the respondents. T-test was use to test the hypothesis. With a sample size of 594, the study found that traditional media influenced Benue people to a large extent during Nigeria’s 2011 elections by ways of making them participate massively in the voters’ card registration exercise, campaigns exercise, voting, knowledge of political parties and their candidates, avoid violence during and after elections and enable them know the voting time table. Finding shows that voters’ education, provision of information, promotion of political candidates, appeal for voter’s participation, encourage for free and fair elections, warn against political violence, advise for maximum performance, attacking of corrupt politicians and advocate for or against change of government were various purposes through which traditional media were employ to serve in Benue during Nigeria’s 2011 elections. Finding also reveals that opposition party utilizes traditional media in their political campaigns more than did the ruling political party. The study however shows that inadequate support, cultural variation, lack of government interest in the media, static nature of some folk media forms and attacks and intimidations were various challenges traditional media practitioners face in their practice during 2011 elections. The study concludes that in the Nigeria’s 2011 elections, traditional media were largely employed and they influenced the attitude/behaviour of Benue electorates towards participating in the elections but traditional media practitioners were face with challenges inadequate support, cultural variation, lack of government interest in the media, static nature of some folk forms, and attacks and intimidations. The study therefore recommends that being an influential media of communication, political and other development programmes should be largely integrated into traditional media to help the message to be effectively communicated to the people. Government should pay particular attention to this grassroots oriented media to make it more vibrant in communicating development oriented messages to the people of Benue. Also, efforts should be made to demystifying such traditional media forms that are so mysterious as well as make those that are too rigid flexible. Furthermore, adaptation of traditional to broadcast media should be enhanced to help empower the traditional media more which is limited in reach in reaching more people in Benue state.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background to the Study

In each society of the world, participation of people who are involved into development programme is a key in achieving meaningful development. The most successful and well planned development programme will not see the light of the day if the people involved are not adequately mobilized. This is not different when it comes to issue of politics. Ucheanya (2003:70) in Nwosu (ed) acknowledges this fact when he says that through adequate mobilization and enlightenment, the people’s political participation becomes advanced to higher level that will pave way for a peaceful election. Ucheanya (2003:70) further maintains:

At this point of awareness, the people’s political culture becomes shaped and redirected for better political participation which involve those voluntary activities by which they share in the election of rulers and directly or indirectly, in the formation of public policy. These activities typically include voting, seeking information, discussion and proselytizing, attending meetings, conventions, contributing financially, communicating with representatives, formal enrolment in a party, canvassing and registering voters, speech writing and speech making, working in campaigns, and competing for public and party offices.

The idea drawn from the above is that non-participation of the people will mean a state of withdrawal from, or indifference to, such activity like having successful and peaceful elections. Participation is very important in any election so as to avoid any unhealthy action by the people. Participation is a source of vitality and creative energy, as a defense against tyranny, and as a means of enacting the collective wisdom.vitality and creative energy, as a defense against tyranny, and as a means of enacting the collective wisdom.

With the realization of the fact that effective mobilization of people is very crucial for the success of any development programme including politics, a lot of efforts have been directed in the past to the use of mass media in mobilizing people for participation in the development activities including politics. This was due to some recognized influences of the mass media on their users. In recognition of this, Thomas Jefferson, the former American president, quoted by Konkwo (2003:87) was of the opinion that he would rather prefer living in a country with a newspaper but without a government, to living in a country with a government but without a newspaper. Ucheanya (2003:71) has averred that:

The mass media are regarded as the guardian of the public that examine the political policies and programmes, educate the masses, motivate, mobilize and manipulate them into active participation. He added that the mass media create forum for public debate, help in public opinion formation, and such other functions like mobilization, status conferral and agenda setting. Through daily provision of adequate political information, the mass media help to construct social reality for the people. They set the agenda for public discourse and hence opinions which can decisively affect what the people do in a campaign period before the election itself.

Sambe (1998:91) in Akosu (ed) has agreed that the mass media have constantly drawn attention to areas of difficulty in pursuit of democracy; by providing detailed information on political parties, political candidates to all levels of elections, pointing out flaws and not hesitating to alert the public on irregularities. Okigbo (1991:9) has itemized some of the roles the mass media performed in the development process including politics thus(a) providing access to wide variety of the people; (b) determining the people’s need for development information; (c ) supporting horizontal and vertical flows of information; (d) supporting cultural communication; (e) raising the people’s awareness and promote development.

However, in the developing nations of the world such as ours, the use of mass media to aid national development does not yield much fruitful result in the majority of our areas since these areas are rural, well isolated by illiteracy, poverty and lack of basic amenities. These areas that are majority hardly have access to mass media infrastructures for effective mobilization and development. This makes it difficult to attain national development through the use of mass media of communication since national development is meaningless when the rural majorities are not carried along. Nwabueze (2004:294), giving the case of Nigeria emphasizes that…if development is to be simply understood as the betterment of the lives of a people, then rural development to a large extent, would constitute the key to national development of a nation like Nigeria, since a greater majority of her people still live in rural areas. Mabogunje (1981:47) has agreed that rural development is the most effective means of improving the well being of the vast majority of a country’s population. Onabajo (2002:37-38), examining the nature of developing nations like Nigeria, provided the following as reasons for the inability of the mass media in attaining national development:

a.Information officers, news producers and other government and private personnel responsible for information and message design and packaging make themselves the sole determinants of the needs of their audience without resource to them.

b.These information disseminators usually belong to a class that does not share the same frame of reference with the majority of the target audience.

c.Little or no inquiry is made into the nature of the audience before messages are conceptualized, and they assure that if the messages sense to them, then it should achieve its purpose.

d.The message designers are under illusion that the rural people are ignorant of their needs and so other people should help in articulating them. As a result, such designed messages look patronizing, thereby alienating the audience and rendering the whole message ineffective.

e.The non-participation of the message receive in the information content is also a barrier to message imbuement. This is because the urban population is guided by generally different criteria for the rural people in their selection of development messages.

f.The urban crowd generates most of the news and information passed to the rural population; hence, there is not attraction between the message and the receiver.

g.A greater percentage of the country’s population live in rural areas and it is unfair to them to only receive urbanized messages. This can make mobilization very difficult;

h.Government efforts in making information available in local languages and dialects is a mere fallacy and of no meaningful consequences.

The implication is that this makes the mobilization of people for development purposes extremely difficult since majority of them (people) are been left untouched. The use of traditional media also known as folk indigenous media is proven to be more effective in mobilizing the general masses for participation in the development programmes of the society. This is in view of the fact that development must take a holistic approach, embracing all segments of the society, irrespective of the class, status, educational level and so on. Nwabueze (2004:295) has recognized that in Nigeria, communication for development purposes is done more through the print and electronic media with little seriousness paid to the use of traditional media to reach the masses. He maintains that though today, a good number of people, particularly those residing in the rural areas have access to radio and television; the traditional media remain the more familiar means of communication with/to them to achieve a purpose. They are familiar with and have easy access to the traditional media.

The traditional media are those means of communication that are peculiar to typical African societies. They refer to those modes of communication still used today by rural dwellers and are often used also in urban areas. According to Nwabueze (2004), these traditional media forms include folk theatre, traveling story tellers, poets, talking drums, flute, traditional dances, metal or wooden gong, town crier, village squares, market, streams, churches mosques, masquerades, songs, extra-Mundane modes, e.g. spirits and gods etc. Ekwelie and Okonkwo (1983:69) acknowledge that these media have survived from the earliest of times and made an adjusted transition into the electronic age. Aima (2003:52-53) adds that folk media forms include festival forums, music, folktales, songs, rituals, clothes and other sartorial constructs, architectural designs, markets, town criers, social gatherings like funerals, wedding, theatre/drama, social institutions, like the extended family and other rallying points provided by the kings, village leaders and herbalists, etc.

Traditional media are effective in mobilizing the masses for development including political development because they are embedded with the culture of the people thereby making them more credible and reliable. Jefkins and Ogboajah (1985:175) have agreed that traditional also called folk media or a media have free, or a media have credibility and prestige. They inject stability into Africa’s social systems and are the real media at the grassroots level. Wilson (1987:88) notes that traditional communication remains what essentially sustains the information needs of the rural dwellers that represent over 70% of the national population of most Third World States. Dissanake in Lent (1978) takes a critical look at the following as numerous advantages accrued from the use of traditional media as against mass media in mobilizing the teaming masses for development purposes

-Traditional media are more credible, having existed among the rural folk for a long time, expressing their deeply felt and communal joys and sorrows, triumph and debate.

-The peasants consider mass media to be elitist and alien and identified with centers of power.

-Traditional media employ the idiom of the people and the symbols, which are readily intelligible to them reach a part of the population that is impervious to the influence of mass media and demand active participation in the process of communication.

-Demand active participation in the process of communication.

Gumucio in Murray (2007) also captures the relevance of traditional media in the development processthus:

Folk communication is so relevant in development, because it interacts with local culture, in the language and themes that are important to the communities. While mass media campaigns are aiming larger publics with very general messages, folk and community based is addressing issues in specific ways and is doing it through local engagement and participation.