Editorial cartoons, also known as political cartoons are hand drawn pictures that occupy a single or multiple pictorial frames, frequently complemented by voice bubbles and subtitles referred to as utterances, with written text and serving as an indicator of discussion that the readers are supposed to interpret with the purpose of communicating a message to either a single person, authority or the public. The purpose of this study is to analyse the readers’ perception of editorial cartoons as value adding mechanism for agenda setting within Nigeria’s one of the mainstream newspapers, the Daily Trust. Despite their humorous appearance, editorial cartoons are often overlooked as a significant form of communication that reflects and critiques socio-economic and political issues. The study adopted the survey research methods; while questionnaire served as the research instrument with thirty (30) items on it, in examining the perception of the Niger North Daily Trust newspaper readers of editorial cartoons as value adding mechanism and agenda setting. The analysis carried out revealed that cartoons are used to set agenda thereby providing political commentary and debate in humorous and crafty fashion through which social realities are reflected in the nation’s wider socio-political arena. The study proposes that print media management and cartoonists should not only see cartoons as an entertaining medium, but should also concentrate on how graphic images and messages can be readily understood with suitable drawings, texts and captions, thus serving as a platform for the dissemination of messages.