WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch The press, national elections, and the politics of belonging in Nigeria Ikiebe, R. This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © Mr Richard Ikiebe, 2017. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] THE PRESS, NATIONAL ELECTIONS, AND THE POLITICS OF BELONGING IN NIGERIA Richard Okhumale Ikiebe A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2017 ABSTRACT Nigeria, today, more or less operates under an intricate web of antagonistic ethnic colonies engaged in all-against-all, low-burning feuds everywhere across the land, nurturing puzzling existential questions. This study seeks to validate the notion that the press may have played a significant role in the promotion of the ethno-regional culture that has dominated Nigeria’s post-colonial politics. Studies on the effects of newspaper press have long established the significant role of the press in statecraft; however this study seeks to understand how the newspaper-press became complicit in the forging of a dysfunctional post-colonial political culture that makes identity politics a central electoral feature. In order to provide a historic understanding of ethnicised politics, the study deploys content analysis of nine newspapers over six federal elections from 1959 to 2011. But to unlock the present day construct of belonging, the study uses in-depth elite interviews with leading academics, politicians, and press owners and managers. The study finds that the press did indeed help to construct ethnicised political culture and identities. It directly links strong elite ethno-regional exclusionist politics with the press. However, the press neither acted alone nor was it always a willing accomplice. Press owners sold the soul of the press to service their own political interests, being often in cohort with political elites through common ethnic interests and power pursuit. Data from the study have forced fresh attention on the newspaper-press as an instrumentalised, predominantly urban-based elite-to-elite medium, and not in any measurable way a mass medium. The study proves that, in reality, Nigeria does not have a populist press. The study concludes with a proposition that the forum function of the press could still be deployed, from an agonistic perspective, to counter antagonism and re-imagine a more democratically productive ethno-federalist nation. ii CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... II LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .................................................................................................... III LIST OF TABLES..............................................................................................................XIV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................XVI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................... XVIII DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP .............................................................................. XX SECTION ONE INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW .......................................................................................... XXI CHAPTER 1 1.1.0 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2.0 PRESS AND POLITICS: A BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................... 3 1.3.0 THE NIGERIAN NATION-STATE ................................................................................................................................. 6 1.4.0 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM.......................................................................................................................................... 8 1.5.0 MOTIVATION .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 1.6.0 JUSTIFICATION .......................................................................................................................................................... 10 1.7.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES/GOALS .............................................................................................................................. 14 1.8.0 THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................................................................... 14 1.9.0 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................................................. 15 1.10.0 THE SCOPE AND PERIODISATION (1959 – 2011) .................................................................................................. 16 1.11.0 TRANSITION ELECTIONS AND CONSOLIDATION ELECTIONS............................................................................... 17 1.11.1 Transition Elections of 1959, 1979, and 1999................................................................................................. 17 1.11.2 Consolidation Elections of 1964/65, 1983, and 2011 .................................................................................... 19 1.12.0 THE LIMITATIONS ..................................................................................................................................................... 19 1.12.1 Limitations .......................................................................................................................................................... 19 1.12.2 Delimitation........................................................................................................................................................ 20 1.13.0 THESIS STRUCTURE AND OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 21 1.13.1 Chapter One. Introduction and Background ................................................................................................... 21 1.13.2 Chapter Two. Historical Context and Empirical Literature Review ............................................................... 21 1.13.3 Chapter Three. Theoretical Literature Review................................................................................................ 22 1.13.4 Chapter Four. Methodology and Research Design......................................................................................... 22 1.13.5 Chapter Five. Elite Interview Data Analysis and Results ................................................................................ 23 1.13.6 Chapter Six. Newspaper Data Content Analysis and Results......................................................................... 23 iii 1.13.7 Chapter Seven. Discussion of Findings ............................................................................................................ 23 1.13.8 Chapter Eight. Conclusions and Recommendations ...................................................................................... 23 1.14.0 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................................ 24 CHAPTER 2 2.1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................ 25 2.2.0 COLONIAL ONTOLOGY AND THE POST-COLONIAL STATE ................................................................................... 25 2.2.1 Historical Background ....................................................................................................................................... 27 2.3.0 THE POLITICAL JOURNEY: FROM DUAL MANDATE TO MULTIPLE MANDATES ................................................ 29 2.3.1 1947 .................................................................................................................................................................... 29 2.3.2 The Challenge of Belonging: The State of Continuous Social Unrest .......................................................... 30 2.3.3 Fast Forward 51 Years (1966-2017) ................................................................................................................. 31 2.3.4 A Failing Democracy? ........................................................................................................................................ 32 2.4.0 POLITICS, PRESS, AND NIGERIA .............................................................................................................................. 33 2.4.1 The Pre-Independence Press and the Anti-Colonial Struggle ......................................................................