Americanisation of Nigerian Political Communications: Matters Arising from the 2015 General Elections

Abstract

This paper aims to provide useful insight into the Americanisation of Nigerian political communication placing more emphasis on the 2015 general elections and the consequences of this on our domestic political system. Nigeria was colonised by Britain. It, however, changed to the American presidential system of government in 1979. Thus, Nigeria is rapidly following the footsteps of America not just in the system of government but also in the adoption of its political communications techniques. Many of the election practices currently being employed in political campaigns across the world appear to have their immediate origin in America. Some of the electoral practices like the employment of communication consultants, personal attack rather than issue based campaign, the adaptation of communication to ‘media logic’, the frequent opinion polls, the use of the new media, the emphasis on image and others appear to have been dominant practices in American political system prior to the adoption by other countries across the globe. The researcher adopted document research as research methodology for the study.  The research was anchored on the globalisation theory. The Americanisation of political communication has brought new standards to the field of political communication. The research shows great American influence in Nigerian political communication system. The paper recommends the employment of American political system in Nigeria with consideration on its workability based on the differences in political, media, economic and socio-cultural environment of both countries.

Keywords: Political communication, Americanisation, Campaigns, Election and Mediatisation