This paper is predicated on the shifting tide of political communication in Nigeria. The most populous black nation, Nigeria, is in its fourth republic; the first three having been truncated by military interventions in the bid to correct the perceived misdemeanours in the polity or political arrangement of the governments. Whether military intervention/interference or democratic rule, each government is political. From the independence in1960 or shortly before the departure of the colonial master, Britain, Nigeria had relied heavily on the apparatus of newspapers and magazines to address political and other societal issues either from the purview of the government or the governed. However, there has been a shift of platform in the current dispensation (though not totally abandoning the former means of communication). By May 2018, Nigeria’s fourth republic was nineteen years old, although democracy in Nigeria is till described as nascent after nineteen years of democratic rule. The fact remains in Nigeria that people who have access to telephone and the internet surpass the number that reads the newspaper or magazine. Politically inclined Nigerians are aware of this more advantageous position of the new telecommunication system – phones, computers and the internet. Data relating to political discourse are obtained from Whatapp messages some two hundred days before the next general elections. Findings reveal the limitations of the newspaper or newsmagazine at dispensing political information. Through the application of Grice’s Cooperation Principles, the Whatsapp messenger becomes more preferable to political players because, in Nigeria, most often, the writer remains anonymous or adopts a pseudo name; the content is not censured; lies are told; fake news are relayed and more than twenty million Nigerians, home and diaspora, can be reached in less than 48 hours. Findings equally reveal that while no newspaper/magazine or radio/television can release or air political advertisement or jingles twenty four hours before the day of election – usually a Saturday – news, adverts, inducements, campaigns etc. are sent to the electorate even while elections are on-going.

Keywords: Whatsapp, Political Communication, Newspaper, Newsmagazine, Election