TRADITIONAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL MOBILISATION DURING NIGERIA’S 2011 ELECTIONS IN BENUE STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background 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:
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