Abstract:
The information flow pattern between urban and rural dwellers in Nigeria has become worrisome to many scholars in the country, It has been observed that the only things that constitute news for reporters in the country are only when a strange thing or negative happens in the rural areas. This study looks at the influence of urban-rural information imbalance on voter education in Nigeria (A study of Ebonyi state). In conducting this study, the researcher used survey research design method to generate quantitative data for the study. The quantitative data were generated through questionnaire distributed to each respondent by the researcher. The populations for this study are Nigerians residents of Ebonyi State with the estimated population of (2,866,618) for 2014; sample size of 385 was drawn using Australian Calculator as provided by the National Statistical Service (NSS). After a thorough analysis of the data generated, findings revealed that majority of the respondents have access to mass media messages, they are also aware of and have access to voter education programmes on the media; however, voter education programmes do not often reach the people in the rural areas. It was also founded that poverty, illiteracy and lack of social and infrastructural facilities in the rural areas are factors that lead to imbalance of informationflow in the country. Based on these, it was recommended that for Nigeria to achieve free, fair, credible and successful elections, thecitizenry especially the rural dwellers must be sensitized on how to exercise their rights to elect the leaders of their choice. This is because the people need to know the importance of participating in the electoral process in the country.
