Communication Experts Flay Political Parties For Declining Quality of Nigerian Elections

Communication experts from the academia, media have blamed the declining quality of Nigerian elections on the non-readiness of political parties to reform.
Rising from an x-ray of Nigerian elections from to 2019, the experts, who converged in Port Harcourt recently to participate in a global communication conference under the platform of the International Communication Association, Port Harcourt Hub, noted that while the electoral managing body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has been undergoing reforms and trying to improve on its operations, the political parties have remained undemocratic internally holding on to unwholesome practices.
Prof Musa in his presentation on the topic, ‘Research and Political Development in Nigeria’ noted that Nigerian political activities are defined along ethnic and religious lines backed by socio-cultural factors.
He pointed out that ‘there has been a continuous decline in the quality of elections rather than corrections from identified mistakes”.
Research studies conducted in 2011, he disclosed, revealed manipulations, anomalies and silent foreign connivance, while in the 2017 general elections-ethnicity and religion showed up in voting patterns and the media was not issue based thus, not giving opportunity to the electorate to properly assess candidates to be able to choose wisely and thus deepen democracy.
There was also media capture, noticeable influence of media ownership in affinity with political groups while smaller political parties were not given attention.
According to the panel, 2019 general elections was more issue based while media bias was an issue with the print media as the senior culprit.
The nature of political violence in Nigeria was traced to god-fatherism, vote buying, rigging and corrupting of electoral officials,
Youths and women were also not able to participate in political zoning and restructuring, thus excluding them from governance.
It was agreed that enough research has not been carried out on elections in Nigeria. In this regard, Prof Charles Okigbo recommended mixed research methods for election research for reliability and validity. Such research should be “more rigorously and purposefully designed.”
He also recommended funding to be set aside for research on election issues in Nigeria noting, that democracy can only be deepened if we have more research findings to support our aspirations for good governance.
Identified gap between communicators in the academics and practitioners was considered not in the interest of the society, so there is need for bridges to address common societal problems from both ends.
The ICA members were urged to build on the conference outcome, network and spread information gathered.
The media was charged to study and understand the new electoral act to be able to properly interpret, interrogate and disseminate information on it widely and effectively.
Serious emphasis was placed on the need for the media to shift focus from personalities to party positions on issues, “shy away from what politicians want and project what the people want” and properly question the politicians.
The Rivers State electoral commissioner, REC, who commended the interest in the Nigerian electoral system and was part of the panel, said electoral reforms have improved the efficiency of elections, but the quality of politics in Nigeria continues to be a problem.
He noted that the voting segment of Nigerian society, women and youths are excluded from governance and assured that with the new electoral act, INEC is ready to ensure that votes count. He urged all to register and collect their PVCs as the most important instrument for making their preferred candidates mount the leadership saddle.
After five days of intensive brainstorming May 25-30, communication scholars and professionals from across the West African sub-region , participants at the 72nd International Communication Association , ICA Annual Conference , #ICA22 Port Harcourt Regional Hub closed shop with a promise to keep the discussions going. The conference was a combination of physical and virtual sessions and the University of Port Harcourt Graduate School of Business Management was venue of the PH Hub. Theme of the conference was ‘One World, One Network’.