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There are currently about 63 registered political parties in Nigeria, however it is now clear, that not all will field presidential candidates nevertheless most claim to have over two-third of total number of  political seats to be contested for

 across federal, states and perhaps local tiers of government. All these political parties will depend on the media to reach electorate.
Setting the tone on how elections will be played this time around, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan successor of late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to the Presidency and presidential candidate for the April polls has stated that it will be “one man, one vote”, a phrase which has caught public discourse like wild fire. Infact, the national electoral umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, headed by former ASUU chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega has not rested its oars in ensuring this new-politico cliché is given life and bite. Naturally, most Nigerians are eager to support the one man, one vote philosophy since they hunger for credible, free and fair election in the country at all levels of government, but are political parties ready to play ball? With the passage of the amended 1999 Constitution and Electoral Act 2010, the nomination, screening and inauguration of the board of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, release of 2011 polls  time table by the commission, successful conduct of primaries by various party, conduct of voter registration exercise, the stage is certainly set for April election yet in this season of political campaigns and endorsements, it is important to assess how political parties and contestants fare in trying to reach out to electorates especially in a nation like ours where the winner takes all syndrome is so pronounced that state resources could be brazenly used to propagate a particular political agenda without regards to the Electoral Act 2010.
To digress a bit, attention is drawn to section 100 (2) of the amended Electoral Act 2010 which explicitly says “state apparatus including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party or candidate at any election”
Subsection 3 states: “media time shall be allocated equally among the political parties or candidates at similar hours of the day”
Subsection 4 states that “at any public electronic media, equal time shall be allotted to all political parties or candidates during prime times at similar hours each day, subject to payment of appropriate fees”
Subsection 5 states: “At any public print media, equal coverage and conspicuity shall be allotted to all the political parties”.
And, subsection 6 gives penalty for breach of subsection 3 and 4 of this clause at N500,000 in the first instance and N1 million for subsequent infractions.
What is on ground simply contradicts the aforementioned seeing that all forms of state apparatus be it institutional, coercive, legal and media are apparently used to favour a certain political party that is in power while disfavouring others, so called “opposition”. Incidentally, this provision is not new. It was in section 103 of the Electoral Act 2006. However, it was observed in a breach. State apparatus were fully deployed by many political office holders during campaign for 2007 elections and indeed all previous elections.
Private media organizations who refuse to toe this line of thought are criticized for opposing government. It should be clearly stated whether such opposition is due to non- conformity or decision to obey professional ethics of giving equal opportunity to other parties other than the ruling party to be heard. On the other hand, efforts must be consciously made by regulatory unions and media associations like the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, Editors' Guild and League of Newspaper Publishers to ensure private print media remain factual, objective and as much as possible maintain balance in their reportage. Beyond that, gagging of media is not only undemocratic but retrogressive if not anti-social. Nevertheless, with elections coming up again this April the media must rise above board as society's watch dog.
Back to the discourse, it is good to know that President Goodluck Jonathan publicly said, September last year, that he has never and would not use state funds for his presidential campaign ahead of April polls. And, recently his 'friends' pooled almost N1billion in support of his campaign. Anyway, he should also ensure that equal airtime is allotted by national media to other political parties as the ruling party.
While appealing to public media to allow level playing field for divergent political views it should be quickly added here that many political parties dwell only on the imaginations of their proponents. That is, they merely claim to have structures spread across the nation when in reality only sign posts and a couple of hand bills indicate their presence in most states. These set of political parties make the loudest noise agitating for media coverage only to “waste” such opportunities in casting aspersions on government, making incisive and unfounded accusations against administration of state affairs. They expect the media to publish every unguarded comment completely uncensored inspite of its tendency to cause political uproar in society.
Any reasonable journalist knows what should be reported to the public and what must not be touched even with a 10 feet pole.
As elections approach, stakeholders in electoral process including the media must brace up against antics of politicians and educate electorate about their civic responsibility to choose those who should direct and manage affairs of state bearing in mind that if we bring to power any administration that is ill prepared for leadership we may have leaped one step forward but two big steps backward. It is time the media sensitize and mobilize the electorate to practice the philosophy of “one man, one vote” for the sake of our democracy and collective development of the nation.

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