Propaganda and Electioneering Campaign in Nigeria: A Case of 2015 and 2019 General Election in Ondo State

AUTHORS: Oluwasuji Clement Olawole

ABSTRACT:The 2015 and 2019 general elections in Nigeria are one of the elections that have drawn the attention of so many countries as a result of their uniqueness, challenges and successes recorded. Political campaignscolouration in Nigeria took another dimension. Political campaigns and propagandaare ways by which political practitioners market themselves to voters and to win elections. This study used the case study of 2015 and 2019 elections to examine propaganda and election campaigns in Nigeria.The struggle for power at the federal level was considered tough amidst the two dominating parties: Peoples Democratic Parties (PDP) and All Progressive Congress (APC). The tussle for the central controlmade several parties to adopt numerous measures to ensure that they win the political seats which could be tantamount to propaganda. This substantiate the submission that surmise that politics whether national or international is the struggle for the minds and resources of men. In this contest, those who struggle for power use all forms of deception including lies. Those who win, win all and grow fat, while those who lose, lose all and grow lean. The study examined the different propaganda methods used by political parties in the 2015 and 2019 Nigeria’s general elections vis-à-vis the issues/problems of political propaganda as regarding the election results in Nigeria using Ondo State as the case study. It also looked into the successive government efforts to curb the excessive use of propaganda by Nigerian political parties before and during elections. The study relied on the use of Rational Choice Theory as the theoretical framework for the work. Both primary and secondary data collection sources were adopted by the researcher in which a total of one hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were distributed to respondents in Ondo state. Similarly, the use of publications, journals, articles, magazines and internet sources were relied upon as basis for sources of secondary data. The questionnaires wereanalysed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation); SPSS and secondary data using content analysis. It was discovered that voters in Nigeria do not necessarily make independent electoral choices rather they rely on primordial decisions vis-à-vis the use of lies in propaganda of socio-ethno-religious leaders who equally double as the representatives of various political parties to make political decisions. The study recommended for an issue-based campaign which will enable the citizez vis-à-vis the electorates be given a free choice of selecting their leaders without political actors interfering in their decision.