THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN PROMOTING GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study assesses the role of the media in promoting good governance in Nigeria, using The Sun newspaper as a case study. A descriptive survey design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches was adopted. Purposive sampling was used, and data were gathered through questionnaires, interviews, and document analysis. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistical tools, including percentages presented in tables and charts, while qualitative data from interviews and open-ended questions were analysed through description and narration.

The concept of good governance has, in recent years, gained renewed scholarly and policy attention in developing countries, and Nigeria is no exception (Arowolo et al., 2023; Pomeranz & Stedman, 2020). The actual practice of the media's role in advancing this agenda continues to be questioned across many societies, largely because a young democracy such as Nigeria's presents the media with a distinctive set of structural and political obstacles (Ezeajughu, 2024). Findings from this study reveal that the role of The Sun newspaper in promoting good governance has been less effective than expected, largely on account of the challenges the newspaper encounters in performing this function.

The study further assessed how the newspaper applies core elements of good governance in its practice and found this application to be inconsistent. It also examined the newspaper's relationship with government and with the public, revealing a close and cordial relationship with the public but a strained and largely unproductive relationship with government. Key challenges identified include low public awareness of the media's governance role, weak public engagement with governance reporting, the deliberate shielding of senior government officials from probing questions, undue government influence over media content, and regulatory restrictions that constrain the media's capacity to promote good governance (Busari & Amedu, 2022; Reporters Without Borders, 2024).

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

In contemporary governance systems across the world, good governance has moved from being a peripheral administrative ideal to an indispensable requirement for social, economic, and political development. Recent governance scholarship continues to frame good governance as a composite of accountability, transparency, rule of law, participation, and responsiveness, and increasingly treats it as a measurable set of principles against which the performance of a state can be assessed (Pomeranz & Stedman, 2020). In the Nigerian context, current research reaffirms that although the rhetoric of good governance has become a permanent fixture of policy and political discourse, translating the concept into lived practice remains one of the country's most persistent developmental challenges (Arowolo, Yusuf, Yahya, Lambo & Oduolowu, 2023). Interestingly, the Nigerian government, in a bid to ensure good governance in the country, entrenched some of the principles of good governance in the 1999 Constitution, specifically in Section 16(1)(a), (b), (c), and (d), and Section 16(2), as possible criteria for governance in the country.

Despite these constitutional provisions, as well as the country's enormous financial resources and considerable potential, and despite the social and economic policies implemented by successive administrations, good governance continues to be elusive in Nigeria. In a further attempt to entrench good governance, recent democratic administrations have organised "good governance tours", in which officials of the Federal Ministry of Information, alongside journalists from various media houses, inspect the progress of projects executed by federal and state government agencies. The objective of such tours is for the media to assess the performance of elected public office holders at both the federal and state levels. The Nigerian Constitution, in Section 22, made provision for such an exercise, stating, among other things, that "the press, newspaper, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people." This constitutional provision directly links the media to the establishment of good governance.

The relationship between the media and governance has been widely discussed in the context of Africa's uneven developmental trajectory. Media scholars continue to interrogate the role of the media in a development process that is largely coordinated by government structures, and this body of work has produced a broadly shared conclusion: good governance is crucial to sustainable development, even though the precise mechanisms by which the media sustains this development remain contested and unevenly theorised (Busari & Amedu, 2022; Akindoyin, 2024). More recent contributions extend this argument into the digital era, showing that governance accountability in Nigeria is now shaped as much by digital platforms and citizen-driven reporting as by traditional broadcast and print outlets (Auwal & Ersoy, 2024).

The role of the media in promoting good governance is, in principle, clear. All aspects of good governance are facilitated by a strong and independent media within a society. It is only when journalists are free to monitor, investigate, and criticise the actions of public administration that good governance can genuinely take hold. Independent media function like a beacon that a government with nothing to hide, and much to improve, should welcome rather than resist. This is the concrete link between the functioning of the media and good governance: the media enable ongoing scrutiny of government activity by the citizenry and provide a platform through which public concerns can be aired (Ezeajughu, 2024).

In practice, however, governments frequently devise formal and informal means of keeping their activities hidden from public scrutiny or of making information available only to media outlets sympathetic to their viewpoint. Recent evidence from Nigeria illustrates this tension vividly. Reporters Without Borders' 2024 World Press Freedom Index ranked Nigeria 112th out of 180 countries, an improvement on its 2023 ranking of 123rd, but the report simultaneously documented persistent government interference in the newsroom, the harassment and arbitrary arrest of journalists, and the continued use of cybercrime and anti-terrorism legislation to obstruct investigative reporting (Reporters Without Borders, 2024). Similarly, empirical work on Nigerian media ownership shows that a significant share of print and broadcast outlets are owned by politicians or political actors with direct interests in the coverage those outlets produce, a pattern that shapes editorial independence and, by extension, the media's willingness to hold government accountable (Oyinloye, Badmus, Akinola & Tijani, 2024).

The emergence of social media has added a further layer of complexity to the media-governance relationship in Nigeria. The #EndSARS protests of October 2020 demonstrated the capacity of platforms such as Twitter to coordinate citizen action, amplify demands for police and governance reform, and pressure government to respond to public grievances in near real time (Akerele-Popoola, Azeez & Adeniyi, 2022; Adeniyi, 2022). The government's subsequent suspension of Twitter in June 2021 was widely interpreted as a direct response to the platform's effectiveness in mobilising accountability-focused activism, underscoring how governments continue to seek control over emerging media spaces just as they have historically sought to control traditional outlets (Okocha & Akpe, 2024). At the same time, scholars caution that digital platforms are not an unqualified good for governance: the same openness that enables citizen mobilisation also creates room for the rapid spread of misinformation and fake news, which can distort public understanding of governance issues and complicate the media's watchdog function (Adeniran, 2020).

If the media are to function in the public interest, government must protect the independent functioning of the press and allow a plurality of viewpoints to flourish in society. The role of independent and pluralistic media in fostering participation is critical, as the media report on aspects of the decision-making process and give stakeholders a voice within it. Freedom of the media allows for the formation of a public sphere in which a wide range of debates can take place and a variety of viewpoints can be represented. Citizens can thereby use the media to express assent or dissent, or to explore aspects of governance issues that official channels do not adequately address. Government has a responsibility to allow the media to contribute meaningfully to this participatory process, particularly in contexts where direct, face-to-face participation is not feasible.

Good governance is an essential framework for achieving wider developmental goals, including poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and the security of life and property. Without good governance, social, economic, and political progress is difficult to attain and impossible to guarantee; it is, in effect, the bedrock of any functioning modern democracy. Promoting good governance is considerably more involved than organising elections and appointing people to public office; it requires sustained institutional vigilance, of which a free and critical media is an essential part. As a watchdog of society, the media has a duty to monitor governance closely and hold public officeholders accountable to the electorate that put them in office, a duty reinforced by recent scholarship on the media's role in anti-corruption reporting and institution-building in Nigeria (Inobemhe, Garba & Santas, 2025). Given an enabling environment, the media remain a key factor in the broader strategy to promote good governance, uphold the rule of law, ensure probity and accountability, reduce illiteracy, and eradicate poverty. It is against this backdrop that this study examines the role of the media in promoting good governance in Nigeria, and some of the challenges confronting the media in discharging this responsibility, using The Sun newspaper as a case study.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The role of the media in promoting good governance cannot be overemphasised. The media acts as a check on government, holding it to account through its reportage of governance activities to the public. Yet government frequently makes deliberate efforts to conceal its activities from media scrutiny and, in some cases, actively removes the enabling environment that allows the media to operate freely. Recent scholarship describes this as a persistent "crisis of transparency" in media-government relations in Nigeria, in which patronage, the political alignment of media owners, and selective access to government sources combine to blunt the media's watchdog function (Ezeajughu, 2024).

Such constraints are not merely historical. Nigeria's cybercrime legislation, even after amendments introduced in 2024, continues to be used to prosecute, detain, or intimidate journalists working on stories involving corruption, terrorism, or elite malfeasance, while journalists covering politically sensitive stories report surveillance, harassment, and, in some documented cases, physical assault (Reporters Without Borders, 2024). The 2020s have also seen recurring instances of broadcast licence suspensions and station shutdowns linked to unfavourable government coverage, a pattern that echoes the earlier suspension of AIT and DAAR Communications by the Federal Government over their reportage of government actions, and that continues to be documented in more recent cases of state-level broadcast bans (Oyinloye et al., 2024). Given these recurring challenges, one cannot deny the media's central role in promoting good governance, even as the conditions for performing that role remain contested. This study, therefore, examines the role of the media in good governance in Nigeria, and the specific challenges confronting the Nigerian media, with particular reference to The Sun newspaper.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The aim of this study is to examine the media and good governance in Nigeria. The following objectives strengthen the study:

1. To assess the actual role of The Sun newspaper in promoting good governance.

2. To assess the extent to which the newspaper promotes core elements of good governance.

3. To examine the relationship that exists between the media and government, and between the public and the media, in the promotion of good governance.

4. To identify the major challenges The Sun newspaper has faced in the process of promoting good governance.

1.4 Research Questions

The study is guided by the following research questions:

1. What is the actual role of The Sun newspaper in the promotion of good governance?

2. How does the newspaper promote core elements of good governance?

3. What kind of relationship exists between the media and government, and between the public and the media, in promoting good governance?

4. What challenges does the media face in fostering good governance?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study is significant for the following reasons. First, it offers insight to readers on the role of the media in promoting good governance in Nigeria at a time when public interest in governance accountability, evident in movements such as #EndSARS and in ongoing debates over digital communication and transparency, has never been higher (Guanah & Bebenimibo, 2025). Media practitioners and government officials will also find the findings useful and informative in understanding Nigerians' perceptions of the role the media plays in the country's governance, and the study will thus serve as a form of opinion survey for both media practitioners and government.

Second, students and researchers seeking to carry out future research on related topics will find this study a useful source of reference material, particularly given the rapidly evolving media landscape, in which traditional print outlets such as The Sun now operate alongside, and are increasingly shaped by, digital and social media platforms (Akindoyin, 2024). Finally, this research contributes to knowledge by expanding the literature on media practice in Nigeria and by grounding that literature in current, empirically documented developments rather than in dated assumptions about the media environment.

1.6 Scope of the Study

The study adopts the social responsibility and agenda-setting theories of the mass media in pursuing its objectives, namely, an examination of the role of the media in promoting good governance in Nigeria and the challenges confronting the Nigerian media in this task. While these theories remain foundational to the study of media and governance, contemporary media scholarship notes that both frameworks require re-examination in light of a media environment now characterised by diverse, partisan, and highly interactive digital sources, in which audiences increasingly participate in setting, rather than merely receiving, the public agenda (Griffin, Ledbetter & Sparks, 2022). The study takes this evolving context into account while retaining The Sun newspaper as its principal unit of analysis for data collection. The study does not extend beyond the objectives stated above.

1.7 Limitation of the Study

The researcher's inability to sample opinions from all media practitioners in Nigeria limits the findings of this research; only a relatively small population of respondents drawn from The Sun newspaper was sampled. Time constraints also posed a limitation, as the researcher was unable to cover additional ground that might otherwise have enriched the study. Identifying media practitioners and persuading them to collect, complete, and submit questionnaires proved a difficult task that further limited the study, as did the financial constraints associated with moving between locations within Abuja to sample opinions.

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