Tackling Voter Apathy and Allied Electoral Challenges in Cross River State of Nigeria:Community Theatre to the Rescue.

The growth of Democracy is widely pursued in Africa. Developed Democracies are also working hard to deepen democratic values and process. Nigeria is not left behind in this desire. She has been doing this through the establishment of several Agencies charged with the responsibility of carrying out Voter Education and mobilization of citizens towards democratic growth and development. However, the efforts that these Agencies have made seems not to be yielding enough in that direction. Nigeria is approximately over two hundred and fifty million in population and less than thirty million people vote during elections. This paper posits that there is a need for the Government to adopt alternative communication strategies/approaches which can bring on board a kind of participatory communication in a manner that communities are part and parcel of developing voter education messages as well as disseminating same by themselves. This can entrench adequate internalization of meanings for good behaviour change outcomes. Community Theatre (CT) is explored to tackle the menace of voter apathy in two Local Government Areas in Cross River State (Bekwarra and Akpabuyo) The method used in this study is Key Informant Interviews (KII), Focus Group Discussions (FGD) which led to Community Theatre (CT) performance by the communities who are facilitated by the research team and relevant INEC and Gatekeepers. The findings show that CT is a veritable tool for communicating voter education against Voter Apathy in particular. It also presents CT as a participatory research tool which support the internalization of messages, ownership of the process of communication and the proffering of solutions by people themselves for the sustainability of gains.