Electronic Workshop Practice: A Panacea to Electoral Malpractices in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The unprecedented challenges confronting the Nigerian electoral process has begun eating deep into the socio-economic life of the nation. Therefore, it is imperative to seek solutions that would be of immense help to the pending problem. This is the rationale behind this study. The study investigated electronic workshop practice as a panacea to electoral malpractices in Rivers State. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of all the lecturers and final year students of electrical/electronic engineering departments of Ken Polytechnic and Rivers State University all in Rivers State. Asimple random sampling technique was used to obtain a sample size of 122 which comprised of 22 lecturers and 100 final year students.The instrument for data collection was a structured rating scale questionnaire designed by the researchers in the pattern of a 4-point rating scale format of Very High Extent (VHE), High Extent (HE), Low Extent (LE) and Very Low Extent (VLE).The instrument was a6-item questionnaire each for lecturers and students, which was validated by 3 experts in the department of Industrial Technical Education of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education Rivers State. A test re-test method of statistics was adapted to test the reliability of the instrument and a coefficient of 0.86 was obtained. The study has 2 research questions that guided it. The data collected were analyzed descriptively using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. The finding of the study shows that electronic workshop practice is a panacea to electoral malpractices in Rivers State. Some recommendations were made based on the findings, of which one of them is; there should be massive and effective public awareness campaign that will engage the society in acquiring electronic workshop practice skills. The engagement will help to occupy and restrain the youths especially from electoral malpractices.