Information literacy skills: a tool for capacity building of lawmakers in democratic governance in Nigeria
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015
Authors
Ojo, J. O.
Ojeagbonye, P. E
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Information Technology application Group (ITAG) International
Abstract
Purpose: This study was carried out to investigate how democratic governance aims at increasing state capability, accountability and responsiveness for constituency performance.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The survey research design was used for this study. Three objectives and three research questions were formulated to guide the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 177 legislators from all the six states of assembly in South-West Nigeria.
The Cronbach’s alpha was used to validate the questionnaire which gave a reliability coefficient of 0.188. Return rate was 85.3%. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Person moment correlation and ANOVA.
Findings showed that legislators (64%) had a clear understanding of the information they needed for their constituency work. Moreover, similar to these results legislators (54%) were able to assess
quality, credibility relevance and accuracy of information from print sources. Legislators (35%) also found it easiest to retrieve information from community based sources such as traditional and religious leaders as well as NGOs (31%). Majority of the legislators (62%) affirmed their ability to create and communicate legislative proceedings to their constituency, through newsletters and magazines. It can be seen that legislators understood the need to act confidentially when dealing with information (44%). They understood and adhered to copyright laws (44%) and to a lesser extent, they had the skill to regularly recognize that accurate and complete information was the basis for intelligent decision- making.
Implications: Legislators had shown their readiness to acquire information literacy skills, since information literacy and constituency performance were closely related, even though information
literacy skills does not have much contribution to the constituency performance of the legislators, there is need to encourage the development of information literacy skills.
Originality/Value: It was recommended that the complexity of the parliamentary structure and processes require the need for information literacy skills, through the use of information and
communication technologies. This can be achieved by training for newly elected members and orientation programmes.
Description
Scholarly article
Keywords
Citation
Ojo, J. O., & Ojeagbonye, P. E (2015). Information literacy skills: a tool for capacity building of lawmakers in democratic governance in Nigeria, Journal of Applied Information Science and Technology, ITAG. 8 (1). Nigeria, 30-43.