POLITICAL ADVERTISING AND ELECTION

Ojeka, J. D. and Ajakaiye, O. P. (2015). Political Advertising and Elections: An Overview of 2011 Presidential Election in Nigeria. The Postgraduate Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State. Vol. 13, No. 1, 2015, ISSN: 1596-5198.

POLITICAL ADVERTISING AND ELECTION: AN OVERVIEW OF 2011 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN NIGERIA. 1Ajakaiye

Olanrewaju, Apra (4729), Head, Media & Information Unit, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria, [email protected] - 08062172600 2Ojeka

John Dean, Academic Officer II, Registry Unit, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria, [email protected] - 07030792570 Abstract This study examined the Influence of Political Advertising on 2011 General Elections in Nigeria, in the context of prevailing politics that characterized the nation’s democratic engagement since its return to democracy in 1999. Argument of scholars that political communication affects participation in political activities was verified, most especially in elections. There are controversial opinions on the role of Mass Media in elections, while some scholars argued that political advertising creates the platform for politicians and political parties to favorable change the perception of electorate, reverse are the views of other intellectuals. The magnitude of media activities on political issues became a borderline in the contemporary societies. What is the extent of this trending norm on the electorate vis-à-vis their voting decision, and the overall outcome of election’s result? This study investigated this argument on the 2011 Presidential election with the adoption of Primary and Secondary methods of data collection. Questionnaires were administered and measured to find out the relation of Political Advertising on the election via the electorates, and equally worked on the verified Secondary materials to justify the arguments. Keyword: Political Advertising, Political Communication, Democracy, Elections, Mass Media Introduction The changing face of Media in Nigeria in the 21st Century in terms of content, packaging and technology has opened a new door of exploitation for the political elites who have the wherewithal and essential connections to disseminate their message to the electorate without minding the inherent challenges associated with any of the medium of communication. The Mass Media served as the prime source of information on political matters to the people-about their government; candidates vying for public offices; political parties and their manifestoes, and other matters in the society. It is worthy of note that, how the media portray candidates and political party can equate the victory of any leader to be elected or defeated in an election albeit the social status. Contemporarily, the innovations in technology have changed the conduct of election campaign interface and even how people vote. Graber (1981:198) rightly portrayed this that: 1|Page


Media coverage is the very lifeblood of politics because it shapes the perceptions that form the reality on which political action is based. Media do more than depict the political environment; they are the political environment. In terms of Media influence globally, political advertising may not influence people with strong opinion on a candidate, but can be a deciding factor among the undecided voters. In presidential race where less than 1% of the electorates can determine the outcome of election, media influence can be significant. In modern society, political advertising is more significant in central elections that garner wider mass media coverage. This is not unconnected to the fact that mass media have emerged as the most common source of information about other lower election’s campaign in democratic societies around the world. In terms of the sheer volume of information available to citizens via the media, political issues- political parties and leaders, electioneering, political debates and forums often represents a high point of political communications. Conceptual Definition Democracy and Elections The concept of democracy had been described by different scholars and intellectuals in various conceptions, though with element of commonalities. However, according to scholars (Janda et al 1997:309; Ntalaja 2003:58 &Massoud 2000:70), the democratization processes in any polity that practice democracy as a system of government must be under the auspice of the following; the existence and adherence to the principle of rule of law; competitive party politics and constitutional recognition of opposition party; Entrenched fundamental human rights; Independent electoral body that should be free from the maneuvering and influence of governmental officials and must be viewed as credible by competing parties; the principle of political equality which respects the notion of one man, one vote and where the votes of the

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electorates count; the notion of free and fair election, where electorates are neither intimated nor insecure in participating in elections. Election forms the bearing and occupies an indispensable position of democratization process, a sine-qua-non to any democratic polity. It represents the main processes through which the people exercise their constitutional power to decide at periodic intervals, who get what, when and how. Political Advertising and Communication The role and place of advertising in political communication continues to generate debate globally and Nigeria is no exception. The emergence of election campaign strategies via media outlets advances this debate, though rarely influencing the outcome of elections. Bolland (1989: 10), given a notion of advertising as the ‘paid placement of organizational messages in the media’, relate the Political advertising therefore, as the purchase and use of advertising space, paid for at commercial rates in order to transmit information on political issues, either in the form of the overview of past achievements of the incumbent government or appealing messages in support of a particular political party. Media outlets, such as Billboard, Radio, Television and the vast internet outlets are at the main-stream of disseminating information by political party and allies. There are, in many ways political advertising differs from commercial advertising, however, the strategies in media advertising as asserted by Rosser Reeves (the proponent of ‘Unique Selling Proposition’ (USP),

are frequently applied to political

campaigning and electioneering. In a modern world, political advertising has become major tool by which political party and leaders present candidates, generating fund and influencing the electorates voting decision in election period. In their work, Nimmo & Felsberg, (1986: 252) opined that, political candidates offer themselves through the media as different brand of the same function, the functions enumerated by Devlin (1986) as: (a) Increasing the public’s identification of a candidate; (b) 3|Page


Swaying the small, but crucial segment of the voters who are ‘floating’, or undecided; (c) Reinforcing support for a party or candidate; (d) Attacking opponents and (e) Raising money. Research Hypotheses H1: Political Advertisements affects the outcome of the 2011 Presidential Elections in Nigeria. H2: Medium of Information affects electorates’ decisions in the 2011 Presidential Elections in Nigeria. Study Design The adopted Descriptive Design of the Survey method aimed at collecting samples based on Accidental Sampling technique of the non-probability sampling method from a population in order to examine the distribution incidence and interaction of phenomenon in the study. This is to express the frequency and to determine the state of all variables in the study, describing the influence of Political Advertising on 2011 Presidential Elections in the Six Geo-political zones of Nigeria structure. The administration of questionnaires on the electorates across the South-East; South-South; South-West; North-Central; North-East; and North-West was used to justify the study’s hypothesis, although, this was not without constraints. Theoretical Analysis The theory of social mobilization as employed in Professor Karl Deutsch’s communicative approach to nationalism averred that communication plays a major role in molding divergent people into a modern nation-state. Conversely, group disunites because of a communication rupture. Communication is more than spoken and written messages as contained in mail, diplomatic correspondence, newspapers, and radio broadcast, it also denotes commercial intercourse activities that inter-relate one group to the other. According to Karl(1953), communication reinforces factors that create national consciousness (race, culture, geography, fear of common enemies) as the citizens begin to experience the mystical spirit of brotherhood 4|Page


and take pride in their common heritage which Hans (1955) rightly describes as a "state of mind". In his submission, Karl Deutsch contends that communication influences only a particular segment of the population- The mobilized citizenry. As a society transverses the path to advanced status, the primitive way of life are jettisoned and the mobilized population multiplies. People become available for new patterns of socialization and behavior, the emergence of mobilized population and the nucleus for a modern nation-state as major old clusters- social, economic and psychological commitments are eroded and broken, (Karl 1953.op.cit). The literate and urbanized citizens are more receptive to mass communication than the illiterate farmers in the hinterland. The literates are more interested anthem operation of their government and aspire to involve in directing the affairs of the society. However, the theory postulated the aptness of the urbanized elites taking advantage of the modern exposure to influence the unmatched population through mobilization approach, especially the media, for various targeted objectives. The relevance of the theory to political advertising that spurs the setting of political agenda for the public in a brotherhood subterfuge and national spiritism in the contemporary societies, especially during election, is unprecedented in the evolution of the media inventions. The commercialization of electioneering via the medium of mass media, geared towards mobilizing electorates and the harness of strong support for a segment of political affiliation especially as obtained in the 2011 Presidential election in Nigeria conferred credence on the theoretical concept. Political Advertisement and 2011 Presidential Election In the Presidential elections conducted in Nigeria in 2011, major election stakeholders such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Political Parties, and Civil Society Organizations made extensive use of political communication and advertising to disseminate 5|Page


political related messages through the media outlets for interrelated objectives. Potential electorates usually get educated on the value, method and procedural guidelines that relate to voting as well as a platform for report on electoral process monitoring in an election period from the electoral body- INEC and the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), while political parties involved in political advertisement for electorates’ support. Among several political parties and their candidates that featured in the 2011 Presidential election, the few dominant parties such as; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-Goodluck Jonathan; Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)- Nuhu Ribadu; Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)-Gen Muhammadu Buhari(Rtd); and National Conscience Party (NCP)- Dele Momodu, engaged in several political advertisements as a tool to appeal the voting behaviour and decision of the electorates for support and the emergence of party at the helm of political power. It is commonly believed that political advertisement served as a spring-board to a positive election outcome to party that engaged the medium of mass media. Beyond doubt, this conception, as obtained in 2011 Presidential Election is given in the following presentation; Data Analysis in Discussion The harvested 587 respondents out of 600 questionnaires administered across the fractures of geo-political structure of the polity, cumulated to 97.8% responses that was analyzed with Chi-Square (X2C)formula. The sequence presentation of the results provided answers to the two research hypotheses, tested at the significant level of 0.05 margin error. The results of the study were presented in the Tables below;

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Table 1: Showing the cross tabulation advertisements as appealing and convincing enough for the vote in 2011 Presidential Election and its account for vote in same election. Advertisements were appealing and convincing enough for vote in 2011 Nigerian Presidential Election

Advertisements accounts for vote in 2011 Nigerian Presidential Election YES NO NOT SURE TOTAL

YES NO 72 67 420 18 4 1 496 86

NOT SURE 3 2 0 5

TOTAL 142 440 5 587

Research Survey 2014. X2C X2T DF N 0.05 Level of Significance

= = = =

165.12 9.49 4 587

Table 2: Showing the cross tabulation of Medium Mobilization and vote generated in 2011 Presidential Election were as a result of Campaigns.

Medium of Mobilization

TELEVISION RADIO NEWSPAPER MAGAZINE FLIERS BULLETINS NEWSLETTERS ELECTRONIC MEDIA WORD OF MOUTH TOTAL Researchers Survey 2014 7|Page

Vote generated in 2011 Presidential Election in Nigeria were as a result of Campaigns YES 37 206 71 3 81 13 27 52 18 508

NO 13 5 4 1 3 11 8 29 2 76

NOT SURE 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 3

TOTAL 50 212 75 4 85 25 35 81 20 587


X2C X2T DF N 0.05 Level of Significance

= = = =

110.27 26.3 16 587

Table 1 presented the result of the analysis conducted on Political advertisement in relations to the outcome of 2011 Presidential Election in Nigeria. The positive result clearly revealed that Political advertisement did affect the outcome of the election in Nigeria, with (X2C =165.12; X2t= 9.49; df= 4; at 0.05 level) which validated hypothesis (H1). In Table 2, the result of the analysis equally revealed that medium of information affected electorates’ decision in the 2011Presidential Election, with (X2C =110.27; X2t= 26.3; df = 16; at 0.05 level) for hypothesis (H2). Conclusion The advent of innovations, especially, the sophisticated technologies in the mass media that is too close to be ignored by electorates had been a cardinal tool in the hand of political party and individuals in the governing affairs of societies across the globe. This, as maximally engaged in by political parties in Nigerian 2011 Presidential Election revealed unprecedented positive responsiveness from the eligible voters during the election. It is observed that mass media has an impact and had enhanced political communication through its medium, not only to educate the electorates, also, to appeal and influence their voting pattern and decision with affiliated political party and individuals.

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Recommendation Since the grasp of political advertising on voting decisions has been established by this study, followings are recommended: 

It becomes essential for media operators to observe that political party and unscrupulous politicians should not appropriate the medium of mass media as a platform for deceit and defamatory Ads.



Mass Media operations should be adequately regulated and monitored by appropriate Commissions to disseminate right information to eligible voters. The Media should act as non-partisan entity especially during elections and to discourage being bought over by politicians.



Since Political Advertising touches on the electorates’ voting decision’s capacity, electorates are encouraged to place uncompromised premium on their voting power by not allowing it swayed by unguided emotion. Antecedent, in term of impact and otherwise of individual aspirant should serve as criteria for conviction.



Electorates should always watch out for party’s un-constituted manifestoes against the ideologies staging for advert by political party and individual politician as a means of measuring the viability of the leading intents.

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References Bolland, E. J. (1989), ‘Advertising vs. Public Relations’. In: Public Relations Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 10–12. Devlin, L. (1986), ‘An Analysis of Presidential Television Commercials, 1952–84’. In: Kaid et al., eds, New Perspectives on Political Advertising, Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, pp. 21–54. Graber, D. A. (1981), ‘Political Language’. In: Nimmo and Sanders, eds, Handbook of Political Communication, Beverly Hills, Sage, pp. 195–223. Hans K. (1955), Nationalism Its Meaning and History: Princeton, Van Nostrand, p. 9. Janda, K. Berry J. & Goldman, J. (1997), The Challenge of Democracy. New York: Houghton Miffilin Company. Karl, W. D. (1953), Nationalism and Social Communication. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., his mimeographed essay entitled "Social Mobilization and Political Development" and his lectures at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Massoud, O. (2000), Local Elites, Democracy and Community Empowerment in Nigeria. In: A. Adedeji and B. Ayo (Eds.) People-Centered Democracy in Nigeria: The Search forAlternative System of Governance at the Grassroots (P.70), Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books. Nimmo, D.& Felsberg, A. (1986),‘Hidden Myths in Televisual Political Advertising’. In:Kaidet al., eds, New Perspectives on Political Advertising, Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, pp. 248–67. Ntalaja, G.N. (2000), Democracy and Development in Africa: Abuja: African Center for Democratic Governance. Omodia, S.M. (2008), Background Perspective to Understanding the management of Elections in Nigeria. In: S.M. Omodia (Ed.) Managing Elections in Nigeria (PP.1 – 2), Keffi: Onaivi Printing and Publishing Company.

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