CITIZENS' PERCEPTIONS OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN NIGERIA: A SURVEY OF SELECTED INSTITUTIONS IN PLATEAU STATE

Abstract

The relationship between citizens' perceptions of democratic governance and the propensity for political participation constitutes one of the central preoccupations of contemporary democratic theory. Whereas a substantial body of scholarship has examined this nexus in consolidated democracies, comparatively little systematic inquiry has been directed at undergraduate student populations within Nigerian state-level settings. The present study investigated the extent to which university students' perceptions of democratic governance influence their political participation, drawing on survey data collected from selected higher institutions in Plateau State, Nigeria. Employing a descriptive survey design, a structured questionnaire was administered to a stratified random sample of 350 undergraduate students across three institutions; 327 questionnaires were returned in usable form, yielding a response rate of 93.4 per cent. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), Pearson product-moment correlation, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings revealed that students held moderately positive perceptions of democratic governance in principle yet harboured pronounced scepticism regarding its practical realisation in Nigeria. Perceptions of institutional accountability, electoral integrity, and service delivery bore significant positive associations with reported political participation behaviours (r = .48, p < .001), and governance perceptions differed significantly across the three institutions, F(2, 324) = 3.87, p = .022. The study concludes that bridging the gap between normative democratic ideals and lived governmental
experience is a prerequisite for galvanising substantive student political engagement.
Recommendations are advanced for civic education reform, institutional transparency, and the entrenchment of participatory campus governance structures