“OF COMMUNICATION, POLITICS AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATION: SUGGESTIONS ON A NATIONAL COMMUNICATION POLICY FOR NIGERIA”
Abdur-Rahman Olalekan Olayiwola
Department of Political Science
Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria.
E-mail: nusramurana@yahoo.co.uk
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the peculiarly intimate relationship between the Communication process and the political system. The first part of the paper is an expose of the importance and indispensability of Communication to the society, the problem of conceptualization and conceptual clarification and the impact of Communication on the Polity. The second part examines political Communication as a very relevant factor to contemporary problems of political stability in Nigeria, analyzing 60,584 news stories carried by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), (government owned electronic media), between January and December, 1983 to demonstrate empirically the influence of media ownership on political Communication activities — Campaigns, party coverage, elections etc. — in the country. The third part which concludes the paper proffers suggestions and makes recommendations on a National Communication Policy for Nigeria within the limitations to which the writer is exposed.