What has been the political effect of regional concentration of newspaper ownership and production in Nigeria since 1999?: has this concentration affected the contributions Nigerian newspapers make to democracy?

My research starts from the premise that the contemporary role of Nigeria’s regionally concentrated newspapers hubs in the current political dispensation, particularly after the return to civil rule in 1999, and their forward and backward linkages to content, ownership, public opinion, North/South politics and national integration has not been sufficiently investigated. Mainstream scholarship and a series of commentaries written within a framework of reference drawn from Marxist political economy reduce patterns of ownership to predominant class interests, an unproven assumption, especially for the post 1999 period. The press in Nigeria influenced decolonization (1940s), national independence (1960) and return of civil rule (1999); however, newspapers are polarised along regional and ethnic lines. This study investigates the political effects, if any, of regional concentration of newspaper ownership and production on democracy in Nigeria since 1999 on one hand while on the other; it evaluates the impact of newspapers’ regional concentration on the democratic process. Using mixed research methods, the findings indicate that in its current composition and by its institutional structures, the press in Nigeria is embedded in religious, ethnic, regional, geo-political imperatives that characterize the Nigerian State. The cleavage between the press in the North and South has accentuated the differences and divisions that exist in Nigeria. Evidence from focus groups and interviews as well as analysis of editorial content both confirm that concentration of ownership in the two regional hubs as well as the relationship between proprietors and journalists affect the way news is selected and treated. Significantly, the study concludes that as democracy becomes further entrenched in Nigeria, the press is required to take a much more robust and comprehensive worldview than it currently possess for it to be a catalyst in sustaining democratic values in a plural society. It recommends the need to promote online news sources and a restructuring and enforcement of labour laws in Nigeria.