The first type of media that were used in Nigeria was the traditional media of communication. These were the media used by the indigenous Nigerians before the colonial adventurers got to the shores of Nigeria called by various names and classified in various ways by modern scholars, the traditional media perform in their own styles, virtually all the functions being performed today by the modern mass media. Such functions performed by these media ranged from information dissemination, education, entertainment to even the persuasive communication, public relations and political communication and mobilization.
It was described as Oramedia by the late Professor Frank Ugboajah (1985) of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos and systematically classified from idiophones, symbolography to aerophones, membranophones and others by Professor Des Wilson (1987) quoted by Nwosu (2003:3). Importantly, these traditional media lie in the fact that they have survived even up to this day and are still waxing strong as essential media of communication especially in the rural areas where more than 75% of Nigerians still live. Their strength lies in the fact that their users in these rural areas consider them more credible than the modern mass media. They are also cheap, easily available, accessible and easy to understand.
As a result, experts have always recommended that in any media campaign effort for modern public enlightenment and mobilization in developing countries like Nigeria, these trado-rural media of communication must be carefully selected and integrated or blended with the modern media in a systematic planned and executed media scenario, before reasonable results can be achieved. (Nwosu: 1986). It is therefore appropriate for Nigerian politicians or political parties and business or marketing communicators to take particular note of this experience and apply it well for improved results.
Omu (1978) graphically and authoritatively presented the long-standing important role played by the traditional media of communication in the area of politics, governance and development when he stated that the most of these indigenous media was the town crier or bell man who with his loud sounding gong, “announced the promulgation of laws and regulations, meetings, arrangements for communal work and general spread official information in the community”. The town-crier is very much a crucial part of the village society today and can still be seen in some parts of the urban areas with established and recognized monarch.
With respect to the role of the traditional media in business and marketing, Omu strongly debunked the view by some foreign scholars like G.T. Basden that traders were satisfied with spreading their wares on the ground and waiting for customers to make the first advance as entirely misleading. According to him, the phenomenon of advertising which is so dear to modern media owners and marketers has always been present in the African indigenous markets and is still there.
Traders called attention of prospective customers to the excellent quality and quantity of their goods and sometimes coined slogans to arrest buyers’ attention to their claims on such goods. This is trado-rural media in action, politics, commerce or business and indeed all spheres of life of the more than 75% of Nigerians that still depend on, use and believe it. (Nwosu, 1990).
Historically, media development and use in politics grew from the above reviewed traditional media of communication or oramedia to the print media of communication, then to broadcast or audio visual media of communication and the new information and communication technology (ICT) like the internet, websites, global satellite for mobile communication (GSM), Phones and others.
With its humble beginning with Rev. Henry Townsend’s Iwe Irohin in 1859, Robert Campbells Angl-African in 1863 and others, (the print media). No doubt, Nigeria today leads most other African countries in the number of newspapers and magazines being produced and circulated. In 1979, Professor Alfred Opubor Ralph Akinfeleye and Idowu Sobowale (in Akinfeleye, 1985:26) in their survey of communication infrastructure in thirty (30) African countries reported that Nigeria had thirty-one (31) dailies and non-dailies with an estimated 6,00,000 combined circulation figure. Currently, the figures are much higher. However, the role of Nigerian newspaper, magazines and other periodicals and printed matters like posters, handbills etc in politics are even much greater.
In addition, it is the same for the broadcast media, both in terms of rapid development or growth and their pervasive and very powerful influence in Nigeria’s political communication. Commencing with the BBC’s (British Communication Corporation) relay and reinfusion services as from 1932, the birth of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in 1951 (now the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN), the upsurge and politics of regional broadcasting that saw the emergence of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Services (WNBS), the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Services (ENBS), and the Northern Nigeria Broadcasting Services (NNBS), the establishment of Government AM or FM stations in Nigeria’s thirty-six (36) states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and the historic 1992 approval of private-ownership of broadcasting houses with the establishment of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to regulate broadcasting in the country, the broadcast media has become a formidable force in the political, economic and socio-cultural life of Nigerians.
No Nigerian politician, political party or government can survive or achieve its objectives without using the services of radio, television, home videos, (VCR) and the satellite aided broadcasting outfits like the Cable News Network (CNN), in one form or the other, including publicity and political advertising.
In today’s highly interconnected global village, politics is no longer a village or community- based, state, national or regional affair; it is a global affair in many respects.
Charles Ikedikwa Soeze, fhnr, fcida, fcai, fswca, cpae, chnr, emba, son, ghnr, ksq is a Mass Communication scholar from first degree to doctoral level and retired Assistant Director (Administration)/Head, Academic & Physical Planning (A&PP) at the Petroleum Training Institute PTI, Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria. He is also a Public Affairs Analyst/Commentator, (08036724193) charlessoeze@yahoo.ca
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