New media as theatre stage for political education: A study of selected new media skits on the 2023 Nigerian general elections

Abstract

Many factors, primary among which are leadership failures, led to some level of apathy among the electorate in past elections in Nigeria.  A report claims that only 35.66% of the Nigerian electorate participated in the 2019 general elections. The situation was envisaged to get  worse in the 2023 elections owing to obvious socio-political realities in the country. Various media were, therefore, employed to salvage  the situation through conscious and unconscious political agitations. Hence, during the 2023 Nigerian general elections campaigns, the  services of the theatre in political conscientization through the dissemination of video skits and short films through the new media  especially, YouTube and WhatsApp were sought. The attention of the public was drawn to an avalanche of citizenship rights and political  education as well as relevant information aimed at guiding the citizenry in taking the right actions for the betterment of the country. This  article interrogates the role of the theatre in creating citizenship rights' education via the new media during the 2023 general elections in  Nigeria. Adopting the Technological Determinism Theory (TDT), the study uses content analysis and direct observation methods to  examine selected recorded performances disseminated via the new media during the buildup for the 2023 general elections. A total of  five video skits shared via the new media were analysed. Based on the analysis of the selected video skits, the study surmised that the  Nigerian populace may have garnered some wealth of knowledge bordering on electoral consciousness, candidate’s leadership qualities  and general voters’ education. The paper concludes that theatre as a vehicle of instruction engaged in creating social awareness that  enhance citizenship responsiveness sought to facilitate the democratic process for good leadership in the 2023 Nigerian general  elections.