American International Journal of Social Science

Reflecting on the Nigerian Media, Elections and the African Democracy
Godwin Ehiarekhian Oboh

Abstract
This paper examines how the media could more effectively be deployed to enhance the conduct elections in Nigeria while discussing the implications of the 2007 Nigerian election on public assessment of the Nigerian democracy. The outcome of the 2007 elections was particularly worrisome following the electoral irregularities that occurred in the elections. The internal and the external observers that monitored the elections noted these irregularities which were later confirmed by the Nigerian Judiciary when the results of the elections approved earlier by the Independent National Electoral Commission were nullified by the court. Since the Nigerian press has the constitutional responsibility to hold the government accountable to the people (justifying the rationale for the study), the paper therefore reviewed the role the media played in the elections using the content analysis approach to determine the frequency and the major issues the media reported in the elections. The findings revealed that the media gave adequate attention to the coverage of the elections, and relied on the views expressed by government officials in determining their editorial stance on the elections.

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