Political Education and Community Development in Nigeria: Issues and Challenges

Azeez Olalowo Oladejo, Ebenezer Oluwole Oni

Abstract


Arguably, political education is lacking in Nigeria (people do not get proper orientation from Government, the newspapers only set agenda for the citizens to be battling, most of which are not always correct), and that is why coordinated efforts by the masses towards development is largely unattainable as the people are disconnected from what the Government is doing. Consequently, the focus of this study is specifically to appraise the extent to which the Nigerian Political system nurtures politically active citizens that are products of effective political education and serve as facilitators for the development of the Nigerian society. The research combines the presuppositions and assumptions of agenda setting theory of the mass media with that of communication theory of politics in its theoretical framework, reviewed a number of existing literatures on the subject matter, and adopted survey research design within the framework of a case study method with questionnaire as its instrument of data collection. The study reveals that political education is still rudimentary, inadequate and mostly an one-way channel that is neither adequate to prepare respondents for political activities nor effective enough to serve feedback purposes. The research concluded that political education plays a very important and significant role in the development of any community. A role that shapes the political landscape of such a community as the extent of participation and the consequent level of development ensured through this means are all a factor of and dependent on the type, nature and quality of political education received by the people.


Keywords


Political education; Political culture; Political participation; Community development

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/9344

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