I had the same problem on my 1994 Nissan XE Pickup. Tail lights and dash lights did not work. It traced to dirty contacts on the light switch. Buy a replacement or clean the contacts. From JWG on another thread:
Traced problem to turn signal/light control. Dust built up between contacts causing failure. Fix action:
Remove turn signal/light control unit from vehicle. Remove phillips head screws from underside of steering column housing. remove lower housing. hold up upper housing to allow access to both bronze colored phillips head screws holding turn signal/light control unit to steering column. remove both screws. Remove electrical connection. Remove unit from vehicle.
Open the rear cover of the unit to get access to the electrical contacts. The cover is a white rectangle that is held on by raised buttons. Do not unscrew the small phillips head screws. They hold other parts together on the inside. pry the white rectangle off gently using a flat screwdriver. There are 5 electrical contacts. The marker light controls use the middle one. slip a small piece of very fine grit sandpaper in between the contact and sand it clean. The contact arm is springy and can be pulled back a little bit if you need to.
When done, check the operation by connecting the wiring to the switch and turning the marker lights off and on. When finished, re-install the turn signal/light control and put the housing back on the steering column.
I have check the fuses next to the steering column and they are ok. I found a source that indiactated there was a fuse under the hood for the tail lights. Where would this be?
If you have the owners manual look there. Look near battery for a black box marked fuse/relay.