Attitudes toward Political Clientelism and Involvement in Clientelist Practices among Social Studies Undergraduates in Delta State, Nigeria

This study investigated attitudes toward political clientelism and involvement in clientelist practices among Social Studies undergraduates in Delta State, Nigeria, and examined the relationship between these variables in order to provide insights into the civic outcomes of Social Studies Education. The study was motivated by the persistence of vote-buying, political patronage, and other forms of transactional politics in Nigeria despite sustained exposure of students to civic and citizenship education. A descriptive correlational survey design was adopted. The study involved all 210 Social Studies undergraduates from Delta State University, Abraka, and the University of Delta, Agbor, using a census approach. Data were collected with the Attitudes toward Political Clientelism and Clientelist Practices Questionnaire (APCPQ), comprising the Attitudes toward Political Clientelism Scale (α = .82) and the Clientelist Practices Scale (α = .73). Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions raised to guide this study, while Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to test the only hypothesis for this study at the 0.05 level of significance. The results indicated the general negative attitude towards political clientelism, with strong disapproval of vote-buying, political patronage and electoral inducements. However, they also reported a moderate level of involvement in clientelist practices, suggesting that although they recognized the harmful consequences of transactional politics, they remained susceptible to participating in such practices under certain conditions. The study further revealed a moderate negative and statistically significant relationship between attitudes toward political clientelism and involvement in clientelist practices (r = −.51, p < .001), indicating that respondents who expressed stronger rejection of political clientelism were less likely to engage in clientelist practices. The findings suggest that civic knowledge and favourable democratic attitudes do not necessarily translate into corresponding political behaviour. The study therefore recommends that Social Studies Education should move beyond the transmission of civic knowledge by incorporating experiential civic learning, ethical decision-making, and authentic democratic participation capable of strengthening students' resistance to clientelist politics.