An Assessment of Credibility and Perception of Governmental Communication Among the Residents in South-East Nigeria

INTRODUCTION

The world over, citizens are at the centre of any socially organised steps to develop society (Jega, 2007). Societies, on the other hand, are in a never-ending search for ways to mobilize citizens for total development. Governments are seeking ways to prove and sustain their legitimacy, and citizens are always looking forward to being given the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to social development through social communication.

Political trust and communication have become key issues in governance (Blinder, 2007). Political trust determines how the citizens view and respond to a political system and its incumbents. Political communication discusses all the socially-based efforts to generate and exchange communication among holders of public office, institutions, groups and the citizens to engender credibility and trust in a political system. Apart from the process of choosing leaders, the next key index of democracy is citizen participation in governance.

Democracy goes beyond the formal trappings of democratic political systems (such as multiparty and elections) to include such elements as accountability and genuine popular participation in the nation‟s political and economic decision making processes (Martin, 1993) The workability of a political system is largely a function of political communication and political trust. Communication drives citizen participation in governance. The kinds of communication interlink, the processing and transmission of information needed by a society determine the workability of a political system. Therefore, a political system works smoothly and grows when there is sufficient information generated, processed, disseminated and used up within and among the major actors in a political system (Ukonu, 2007).This has been the difference between advanced and emerging democracies in the world. In view of these, there has been a growing political need to analyse citizens‟ use of political/governmental communications, especially now that the international community is engaging with Nigeria as a clime in which democracy is taking root.