THE CRISIS OF HEGEMONY IN NIGERIA: STATE AND PRESS RELATIONS IN THE BABANGIDA YEARS

THE CRISIS OF HEGEMONY IN NIGERIA: STATE AND PRESS RELATIONS IN THE BABANGIDA YEARS

Abstract:

This is a study about the process of hegemony. It examines the theory of hegemony and focuses on the effort by the state in the tenure of General Ibrahim Babangida to foist its hegemony within the polity and, specifically the role of the press therein. The study is specifically woven around two research problems: First, to examine the theory of hegemony, its constituent elements, instances, varieties and manifestations. Second, to examine the potential and concrete use the state made of the press in foisting its hegemony in the period under review and with what success. Relevant data for the study were gathered from three sources: the library, interviews with notable personalities including General Babangida himself and others in the press and, content analysis of a sample of newspapers that served as units of analysis. The theory of hegemony constructed from the Marxia approach of class and class struggle as against elite perspective provided framework of analysis in the study. After outlining elements of the research design and a reasonable exposition of the theoretical framework all in chapter one, a review of the foundation and evolution of the Nigerian press and its place and role in the process of hegemony, particularly in the Babangida period formed the mainstay of chapter two. The review of the economic and political policies of the Babangida administration formed the content of chapter three of the study. Three hypotheses were tested each in chapters four, five and six. Data gathered therefrom not only confirmed each of the hypotheses but a statistical treatment of the findings in each case revealed that the relationships between the variables therein are indeed significant. In chapter seven, which is the last, the central argument of the study was established. The study has established that the press has contributed immensely in the process of the legitimation of the administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in its eight-year tenure, and at the same lime it promoted the hegemony of the state in the same period. This favourable posture of the press in the period under study was attributed to the cohesion that the bourgeoisie attained for most part of the tenure of Babangida. In the same vein the study has established that the’ relationship between Babangida and the press in the last one year of his tenure after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election undermined the legitimacy of the Babangida administration and challenged the hegemony of the state at the same time. It automatically stands to reason therefore, that the Nigerian Press lacks the capacity, by virtue of its dominantly bourgeois philosophical orientation and ownership structure to positively contribute in relation, first, to the struggle for the revolutionary transformation of the extant social and political order and; second, to the foundation of a popular (that is working as against bourgeois class oriented) democratic alternative political framework germane to the social liberation and independent development of Nigeria.

THE CRISIS OF HEGEMONY IN NIGERIA: STATE AND PRESS RELATIONS IN THE BABANGIDA YEARS