OXYGEN OF DEMOCRACY: EXPLORING THE STATUS OF JOURNALISTS AS WATCHDOGS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The watchdog role of journalists is enshrined in Chapter II, Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. It is, therefore, the constitutional role of the mass media to act as a watchdog for good governance by ensuring that government is responsible and accountable to the people. Sadly, several factors inhibit journalists from performing this constitutionally assigned duty. This paper examines how journalists rate their role as the watchdog of society, and how they score government on accountability. Using the Social Responsibility Theory, this quantitative paper employed an online questionnaire (Google Forms) as a research instrument to generate data from 410 respondents. The study employed a quantitative survey as previous and current media practitioners were chosen from the 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria through a purposive sampling technique. The study demonstrates that Nigerian journalists rate their role as watchdogs of good governance, high. This study therefore recommends that being watchdogs for good governance in Nigeria, journalists should guard and reinforce the professional ethics of journalism practice.