ABSTRACT
The study deals with the
analysis of the role of the Nigerian
press in the democratic struggle in Nigeria. The research method used
was the survey method, with the questionnaires and interview as the method for data collection. The study kicks
off from the definition of democracy as the government of the people by the people and for the people, including brief
definition of some features of democracy like popular sovereignty, popular
consultation and periodical elections. Using constentical questionnaires given
to eight (80) respondents, the study
analyzer the press and its revolution
and power a growth and development of the Nigerian press in democracy.
Respondents are polled in four categories: Lectures layers politicians and
general citizens . Analyses of their
responses show that the press is essential for provide my owners for the
participation of all members of the society in decision making. As a
recommendation the press is urged to put up expensive and effective machinery
to cover the nation as a whole and not just the cities and their aliclist
inhabitants the press was also
admonished to work towards national cohesion and to d this it should consciously purse the goal of
getting Nigerian to think and reason as Nigerian rather than alongside the
dividends of ethnicity the findings are
1.
That the Nigeria press has so for performed
its role of adducting and people on the need to make wise choice from competing
alternatives during elections.
2.
That the
role of the press in promoting and entrenching sustainable and effective democracy is very essential.
3.
That the Nigerian press has fearlessly and responsibly
performed its roles of not only informing people to make wise choices, but also
safeguarding.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page II
Certification III
Dedication IV
Acknowledgement V
Abstract VII
Table of contents VIII
List of tables and figures XI
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION 1
Statement of problem 7
Rationale and Purpose of the study 9
Significance of the study 11
Research Questions 12
Research Hypothesis 13
Definitions of terms 14
Limitation of the study 15
CHAPTER TWO:
LITERATURE REVIEW 16
Press its Revolution and power growth and
development of Nigeria press
Expected Roes of press in Democracy Philosophies or Typologies concept of freedom
of press in democracy 31
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY METHOD 37
Sampling Procedure
38
Data Collection Instrument 39
Data collection method 40
Data Analysis 40
CHAPTER FOUR:
DATA ANALYSIS AND
FINDING 42
CHAPTER FIVE:
SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Findings 53
Suggestion
Recommendation and 54
Bibliography 57
Questionnaire 60
LIST OF TABLE
TABLE 1 : The
respondents view of the press roles in Nigeria democracy .
TABLE 11 : Respondents rating of the press roles in Nigeria
democracy so far.
TABLE 111: The
respondents” view of the major roles o the press in Nigerian Democracy
TABLE 1V: . How far has the press performed it roles.
TABLE V: respondents view on whether Nigerian press is
free to perform its roles.
TABLE V1: The
threat to press freedom in Nigeria.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACGROUND
OF THE STUDY
Democracy in
its simplest definition means government of the people, of the people and for
the people. It its often referred to as government of popular participation,
even though sound schools of thought will argue
that democracy in the contemporary society cannot accommodate every
member of a society, what can be possible is representative participation.
However, in its original form and as practiced in ancient Greek city stated
and approximated of New England town meetings
and swiss contions, Democracy simply means full participation of all citizens
in the daily routine of administration of community affairs. Literally however,
democracy means government of the
people, by the people and for the
people. This is derivative from two Greek word that make up the word “Democracy” which literally means people
to be ruled.
Yet. Some western political theorists for example, kotler
how holds the view that democracy is only a system of government that
guarantees direct maximum popular control over the decision.
From the foregoing, it is clear that democracy as the
ancient Greek developed it entails the
participation of every member of a society.
Meanwhile, the participation will be difficult to obtain or guarantee in
modern societies or state, in its purest form. What could be obtained is
therefore representation. To this and Robert Dahl and others, believe that is
safe only in the hands of popularly elected elite whose powers are limited and
who can be removed while in the officer by the people whenever their wishes are
not being not. Thus, the focus of the thesis is on effective popular control
over the elected representative of the
people as opposed to direct participation, which is in modern control, neither
desirable nor attainable. Invariably, what we call democracy today is representative
government. If means that the citizens should choose those they feel could
represent their interest and government on their behalf according to the
principles of majority rule. In other words, the philosophical basis of
representative government is the idea of popular sovereignty.
Essentially whatever may be
the difference is important to note that ideal democracy, guarantees the
government that will be in the interest of the people. The government that will
be responsive to popular wishes and guarantee that every citizen must have some
share in the decision –making process either by way of directs participation,
by way of electing the decision makes and popular control.
Indeed, democracy must hold certain common promises that
makes it 50 attractive to all who profess or aspire to practices it. In its
quality, shunning all forms of class differences. In its economic sense, it attempts to level
inequalities in wealth. And in total and political sense, it aims basically at
securing the consent of the governed, protecting his human personality and
achieving the well.
If it is agreed that these are
the goals of democracy, to how than can a governmental system achieve the goal
? Or if any goal system claim to level itself as democratic, what features do
are look for a system. Perhaps, an answer to these questions would help in quintessence
of democracy.
ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF DEMOCARCY
POPUAR SOVEREIGNITY: For a democratic system of government, it is
necessary that sovereign power resides in the
people. If the ultimate command of fill and exclusive legal power,
command of fully and exclusive legal power, what we have is autocracy or
dictatorship and if it is on the hands of a few people , we have oligarchy,
aristocracy and not democracy.
EQUAL OPPORTNITY FOR ALL: This implies that the equal access of all
members of the society to the political decision making process must be
guarantee. It also requires economic independence and job security. More
importantly, it means one man, each vote weighted equally with another. Every
individual must not only have the right to vote but also the right to be voted
for in any election.
AVAILABILITY OF CHOICE BETWEEN ALTERNATIVE
In democratic
setting it is compulsory opportunity to choose from competing alternative,
political to complement the peoples right to political equation, genie
alternative policy programmes must be presented to the people at elections to
enable them make real choices. This is than achieved by organizing the
political elite into factions or parties with different political prgrammes.
REGULAR PERIODICAL ELECTIONS: This has dual advantages of providing
an orderly changes of government and of providing a channel for the expression of the citizens wishes at regular
intervals. The people can therefore be fee to make a reasonably choice out of
competing alternative political ideals and leaders.
POPULAR CONSULTATION: Popular consultation is also a way of
sounding the wishes as regards to what policies they want to adopt. After
identifying the wishes, the ruling elite must ensure that the wishes are
translated into public policies decisions is the satisfaction of the people.
The kind of two way communication envisaged have requires a public that is
reasonably in formed on civil matter and adequate and open channel of communication,
an intelligent and independent press,
and freedom of association and discussion,
It is under this situation that the citizens can contribute
to the decision making process, through public opinioned in speech or writing
in associations, group or public meetings praise or blame the government and
criticize policies with suggestion for other lines of action without hindrance.
WELL INFORMED ELECTORATE: Although the previous discussed features
has identified the essence of communication in democracy it is still necessary
to isolate it as an important different characteristics of democracy.
Essentially, the idea of democracy thrives better where the voters are literate
and well informed this view is not heold
so as to equate democracy people with
educated people. This is more practicable in the modern societies where every
issue is given wide publicity on radio, Tv and the press.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
It is now
clear that democracy is a philosophy that is based on the a aforementioned
principles and features. It has the capability to ensure popular participation,
freedom of political action and to draw upon the talents of the greatest number
of members of a polity for the promotion and satisfaction of common interests.
Basically, inclusion in power means collusion in its benefit.
However, the principles and the benefits of democracy
cannot be attained and have not being attained any where in the world without
the power and roles of the press. In other worlds, the role of the press in
democracy cannot be overemphasized. It is observable that are interviewer with
communication. Any attempt to promote democracy must start with the education of the people, so that they can
appreciate the choices be fore then and acquire the ability and character to be have rationally
and participate actively in the process of governance. Without education,
people cannot understand the essence of democracy and general issue of public
interest and in such a situation, it would be presumptions to expect the people to exercise independent
judgement or tolerate others point of view and political choice or decision.
This is where the press comes into democracy and that is why democracy cannot
be separated from the press.
Democracy involves a responsibly a responsibly understanding of rights and
obligations by the people, in every situation and also involves the appreciation of the nature and dimensions of
issues to be decided. The understanding and appreciation process are done by
the press in any democratic setting. But the ability of the press to functions
in broadcasting the base of information showing and in democratizing public
established particularly in Nigeria.
In other needs, it is already established that, the press
has a profound effect on the thinking of the people, of least. Barnard. Cohen
has said that the press may not be
successful much of time in telling people what to think, but it is
stunningly successful in telling its reads what to think about” but the
question of how the Nigeria, press have been able to show the civil society the
light to follow towards a proper functioning democracy still remains unanswered
empirically.
Therefore, this study is
set out to find out what really
the roles the Nigerian press in particular has performed in entrenching and
sustaining democracy in Nigeria. The study shall this endeaour to find out how
much effort has been made by the Nigerian press to strengthen the resoling of
those forces and institutions that are designed or oriented towards the
sustenance of democracy.
1.3 RATIONALE AND PURPOSE FOR THE STUDY
The Nigerian
press has been criticized for subverting
the course of democracy rather than furthering it. Take for example accusation
against certain section of the press often referred to as Lagos / Badin axis as promoting sectioned
interest rather than n than national. Nigerian Tribunal which is owned by chief
Obafemi Awolowo clan has been variously accrued of contributing to the fall of
the second republic as its consist. Tent criticism of Alhaji Shehu shagari
government led to military intervention of December 31, 1973.
Equally, the role of the Nigerian press under the military,
especially after month of the annulment the June 12, 1993 presidential election has come
under criticism by those in government. Although the press was in the vanguard
of agitation for democratic rules, many continued to accuse the press as
playing a sub-versive role in the country.
The purpose of the study is therefore to find out the
contributions of the press, particularly the Nigeria press in the development,
entrenchment and sustenance of democracy. What are the roles of the press in
democracy in generad and how has the Nigerian press fore in performing the
roles are the major knowledge the study
intends to find out.
In finding out all these, these study shall also analyze
the legal and other constraint on the expected roles of Nigerian press in
democracy struggle.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study
shall be of immense benefit to the society as a whole. It will be beneficial
particularly to the Nigerian furnish, by affording the knowledge of how they
have fared since independence on the enthronement and sustenance of democracy
in Nigeria.
The study shall let then know the true position in the democracy struggle in Nigeria and
shall let then know how well or otherwise they
have performed their expected roles in the democracy struggle. The study
hall open up to the journalism the constant hazards and obstacle that have
impended or hinder the performance of their roles in enthronement of democracy
in Nigeria and shall give break light on how to remove the constraints.
Another major benefactor and its officials. It would also
afford these group of people the knowledge of how they have helped or hindered
the press in performing its expected
roles in democratic struggle. There by, the study shall be a source of
aspiration for change in their attitude towards press and their roles in a
democratic dispensation.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to
achieve that purpose of study, the following questions shall be answered by the
study.
1.
What are the roles of the press on democracy.
2.
How has the Nigeria press few in the performance
of its expected roles democratic
struggle.
3.
Has the Nigerian press monitored the events
nation wide and beyond, to reflect sufficient concern for democratic processes
and values in their assignment ?
4.
Are Nigerian press socially responsible or not
in their attempt to enthrone and sustain democracy in Nigeria ?
5.
Has Nigerian press performed well in informing
the Nigerian populace and providing useful fore for discussion and debate on
all aspects of national and human existence ?
6.
What are the constants of the Nigeria press
in performing its roles for democratic enthronement ?
1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
H 1 – The role of the press in
any democracy is very essential.
H0 – The role of the press in
any democracy is not very essential.
H2 – The Nigeria press
has not performed effective and positive roles in Nigerian democracy.
H0 – The Nigerian press has
not performed effective and positive roles in Nigeria democracy.
H3 – The Nigerian press has
fore most in the roles of informing and
educating people in order to make a wise choice in election.
H0 – The Nigerian press has
not fore most in the roles of informing and educating people in order to make a
wise choice in election.
H4 –Nigeria press is completely free to
perform its roles.
H0 - Nigerian press is not
completely free to perform its roles.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS DEMOCRACY
CONCEPTUAL - Democracy has to do with a country with government
which encourages and shows rights of citizenship such as freedom of speech,
religion, opinion and association, the assertion of the rule of law
majority rule, accompanied by respect
for the rights of minorities.
OPERTIONAL :- Democracy is
the type of government, which ensure popular participation, freedom of
political action and draw upon talents of the
greatest number of members of a polity for the promotion and
satisfaction of common interests particularly in Nigerian polity.
PRESS
CONCEPTUAL - Press refers to pointed periodicals the
newspaper generally and journalist.
OPERATIONAL – Press how
reefers to the different mass
Media including mass, media
practitioners
In Nigeria whose job is dissemination
of
Information and educating the people on
the
Need for democracy and its values among
the
people.
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study
is hinted by time and financial
constraint couple with the ethnic rivaling and religious wars in the country.
However, a more comprehensive study will involve large
sampled size can be embark upon to expand the frontier of knowledge.
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