INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL ADVERTORIALS ON VOTER EDUCATION IN THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NORTHCENTRAL NIGERIA TIAMIYU, KABIRU ADEBOWALE

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of political advertorials in educating the electorate on the
need to vote during elections in Nigeria. The study focused on the 2015 general election in Nigeria with particular
attention to North Central Nigeria. The population of the study was 191,554, comprising the number of state civil
servants in North-Central Nigeria, while multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 382 as the sample for the
study, arrived at, using the Kretcie and Morgan sampling table. After a descriptive and inferential data analysis, it
was found out that there was high level of use of political advertorials for voter education in 2015 elections. Most of
the respondents were exposed to political advertorials on voter education in North-Central Nigeria, since more than
90% of them read the advertorials, most of the political advertorials were written to favour certain candidates and
political parties; hence the voter education content was bias, among others. It was recommended, among others, that
there should be more of political advertorials regularly on the pages of Nigeria newspaper, instead of limiting such
publications to the election years alone, as it will lead to consistency in the messages, thereby registering on
peoples’ minds political consciousness, needed for voter education.