Public Relations Strategic Mapping and Credible Election Administration in West Africa
Evidence from INEC’s Election Management in Nigeria
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Abstract
In this study, we assessed the effect of and potential of public relations (PR) strategic mapping on attitudinal changes of both the electorates and staff of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the areas of voter education, voter participation, acceptance of electoral outcomes as well as building strong internal controls. Anchoring the study on participatory theory, data generated primarily from four hundred respondents selected using multi-staged sampling technique were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The four research questions were answered and the results from the use of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of logistic regression shows that Public relations strategic mapping (PRSM) have made significant influence on voter education, participation, acceptance of outcome, as well as building strong internal control. The study also noted that PRSM have enormous potentials yet to be harnessed, the odd ratios of 9.213 for voter participation, 12.962 for voter education, 7.145 for electoral result acceptance and, 3.133 for internal control showing that, any unit increase in PRSM effort create significant impacts on attitudinal changes among the citizenly. Hence, we concluded that PR strategic mapping remains the magic wand in changing people’s perception about INEC and also helping INEC in building strong internal control. Therefore, the study recommended more efficient usage of PR strategic mapping in amending the battered image of INEC before the electorates to improve voter participation and acceptance of election outcomes among other things.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Emmanuel Ejiofo Nwanmouh, Nduka Vitalis Elda Okolo-Obasi, Chikodili Nkiruka Okafor, Lilian Njideka Ebisi, Promise Adachukwu Afunwa , Remigius Amarachi Dike, Innocent Uzochukwu Ozumba, Chinyere Best Obeke (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Emmanuel Ejiofo Nwanmouh, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business Administration, Enugu Campus, University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, Nigeria.
Chikodili Nkiruka Okafor, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
Department of Management, Faculty of Business Administration, Enugu Campus
Lilian Njideka Ebisi, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
Department of Accountancy, Faculty of Business Administration, Enugu Campus
Promise Adachukwu Afunwa , University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
Department of Management, Faculty of Business Administration, Enugu Campus
Chinyere Best Obeke, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business Administration, Enugu Campus,
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