Management of 2023 post-election crises in Nigeria: A public relations approach

Abstract

Based on debates and controversies following the declaration and inauguration of President Bola Amed Tinubu over the perceived winner of the 2023 presidential election and the current challenge of Nigerians over hike in pump price of fuel due to fuel subsidy removal which has resulted in high cost of living and hardship, this position paper serves as a contribution on how public relations approaches/strategies could be used in managing the 2023 post-election crisis in Nigeria. The three objectives that guided the paper were to: ascertain the issues that constitute 2023 post-election crisis in Nigeria; outline public relations strategies that could be used/adopted in managing 2023 post-election differences and establish how the identified public relations strategies will effectively curb the 2023 post-election crisis. This paper was anchored on Grunig and Hunt’s Two-Way Symmetrical Communication Model of Public Relations with its main thrusts on dialogue, listening, understanding and two-way symmetrical methods to explain how effective communication, dialogue, balance in communication flow (horizontal flow) and understanding as against one-sided (asymmetrical) communication flow and discord etc. could be adopted/used in managing and possibly curbing the 2023 post-election differences. The paper adopted a library-based approach which essentially entails a review of existing literature as the basis for understanding the research issue and reaching necessary conclusions.