POLITICAL ADVERTISING AND VOTERS BEHAVIOUR IN LOKOJA DURING 2019 GOVERNORSHIP POLL IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

Politics, being a big business comes with buzz and many days of struggle to be known to be more exposed to the electorate and be able to gain goodwill. It also comes with a lot of interests and attracts many people who struggle to form a government. In Kogi State, as a prelude to the 2019 governorship election that took place in the state, political advertising was launched. This study is, therefore, about political advertising and voters behaviour in Lokoja during the 2019 governorship poll. Survey method was adopted in generating primary data for the study. Consequently, a quantitative approach was adopted in analyzing the data extracted from 384 samples, out of the 400 samples size that was chosen based on Taro Yamanes formula. Stratified random sampling was adopted in the distribution of copies of the questionnaire. Among other findings, the study unravelled that political advertising on and in the various mass media had little effect on voters behaviour in Lokoja during the 2019 governorship poll. The study also discovered that the electorate got to know more about the candidates through the political advertising but the hype did not rule out their interests and envisaged gains which made them make rational choices. Given this, the researchers recommended among others that politicians should have charismatic dispositions that will position them on the minds of the electorate, and should not depend largely on political advertising for acceptance by the electorate.