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A LINGUISTIC STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF
THE CAMPAIGN SPEECHES OF TWO
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN THE 2011
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
This chapter contains the background to the study, a brief
profile of the presidential candidates in this study, a brief over view of
political campaigns in Nigeria, statement of the problem, research questions,
aim, and objectives of the study, justification of the study, scope, and
delimitation of the study. Therefore, this chapter provides an insight into the
study.
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The ability to communicate
effectively is the hallmark of all known politicians wherefore the use of
English as an international language has made more people aware of the immense
power of words in politics and communication.
Thus, Kamalu and Agangan (2007:35)
state that language plays an important role in manifesting political wills and
accompanying political actions; this is the case with political campaign,
especially in Nigeria where campaign affects the electorate who are on the
receiving end. Language is therefore used in a unique way; to achieve set goals
and objectives. Consequently, campaign speeches are largely dependent on
language which is the focus of this study.
Language provides the individual with a tool
for the exploration and analysis of his conceptual ideas and this is what has
distinguished and given man his unique position in the world. This is why Isa
(2004:1) maintains that one of the most important functions of human language
is its role as a means of communication or interaction between members of the
society. She further notes that language helps man to establish social
relations and other forms of networks which only language can facilitate and
which obviously makes man superior to other animals lacking in the
instrumentality of language.
Sapir (1927:7) in Abaya (2009:195), Oladayo
(2011:38), and Anifowoshe (2006:11) define language as purely non-instinctive
method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of
voluntarily produced symbols. According to Harris (1979:53) language is the
means by which political ideas are transmitted to the community and that the
strength of language in politicking are enormous.
However, language conveys different
kinds of information relating not only to the speaker’s beliefs but also his
identity and relationship with his listeners and hearers which re-enforce that
language is vital to human experience. In other words, language serves as an
important tool through which effective interaction, mobilization for national
development and transformation are achieved.
Hence, Ayeni-Akeke (2008: 83), submits
that “political life, like other aspects of social existence, is made possible
by the ability to communicate.” He argues that “communication underlies the
dynamics of political life.” In order to buttress this view, Pie (1978:2) in
Joshua (2003: 109), points out that “politics exists not only to push parties
and candidates but covers also the pushing of ideas and point of view.” So,
politics involves a series of connected activities designed to bring result.
These include: campaign, advertising, canvassing, lawn sign, and so on. Behind
these bits and pieces of political power games, is language which ‘is an
important aspect to political campaign and an interesting vessel of post
election communication’ (patriorstatesman).
The
language of political campaign speeches usually comprises of the use of foreign
phrases known as political jargons, three part statements, use of rhetorical
questions and pronouns to influence and impress the target audience. There is a
large use of quotations and adequate use of repetitions. The mode is
manipulative, persuasive and the language is ideologically embedded.
(myspeechlab.com)
The
inability of the electorate to grasp the extent to which politicians use
language in order to manipulate, persuade and deceive them into winning their
vote is the concern of this study. This is because understanding a language
could be difficult without examining fully how such a language is being put to
use. Hence, Amodu (2010:1) observes that for a long time, particularly from the
early 40s to the late 70s, the study of language concentrated more on the
language form, at the expense of how language functions as the case is in
functional linguistics and pragmatics. He goes on to say that scholars are
gradually shifting ground from paying attention on language structure to
studying how language can be functionally used in the society especially if the
language has been developed. This reveals that interest in language for
communication should be viewed as a good step forward from the narrower and
still popular focus on language as grammar. This is not to undermine the
importance of the study of language structure but it is an acknowledgement of
the fact that the study of how language is being used is now receiving a
greater attention and in a new dimension.
By studying language in circumstances
where all its functions and variations are taken into consideration, it is
possible to learn more about how perceptions, convictions, and identities are
influenced by language. More so, words and expressions are used or omitted to affect
meaning in different ways. In political speeches during election campaigns,
ideas and ideologies need to be conveyed through language so that they are
agreed upon by the receivers as well as by others who may read or hear parts of
the speech afterwards in the media. Thus, citizens of democratic countries have
the option to go to the ballot boxes on election days and vote for one person
or one party. Whether their decision goes along with a political conviction or
not, it is most likely based on communication through language. Black, (2005)
in Kulo,(2009:1) states that within all types of political system, from
autocratic, through oligarchic to democratic, leaders have relied on the spoken
word to convince others of the benefits that arise from their leadership. The
study attempts to unravel the features of language that are peculiar to the
speeches of the presidential candidates using the linguistic stylistic
approach.
Aristotle in Anifowose and Enemuo
(1991:1) mentions that “man is by nature a political animal.” By this, he means
that the essence of social existence is politics and that two or more men
interacting with one another are invariably involved in a political
relationship. Therefore, it is evident that both language and politics
intersect at the point of interaction. Similarly, Merk (1967:13) cited in
Anifowose and Enumuo (1991:1) argues that politics is the “art of influencing,
manipulating, and controlling others; which are all indubitable functions of
language in verbal communication.
Moreover, political speeches are
composed by a team of professional speech writers, who are educated in the use
of persuasive language. Beard, (2001:18) in Kulo (2009:1) throws more light,
that adding rhetorical devices to a pre-composed speech may be of crucial
importance to election results. He adds that a political speech is not
necessarily a success because of correctness or truth rather politicians use
language in presenting valued arguments to achieve their aims of winning votes.
To examine the most prominent linguistic/stylistic features of language is a
cardinal focus of the research.
1.2 A BRIEF PROFILE OF THE CONTESTANTS.
Many presidential candidates publicly
declared their intentions but we shall look at two for this study.
General Muhammadu Buhari was born on
December, 1942 in Daura, Katsina state in the North West zone, Nigeria. He
became Nigeria’s Head of State on December 31, 1983. He was over thrown on
August 27, 1985. His administration introduced the “War Against Indiscipline”
(WAI) campaign which, despite its highhandedness, it still landed to have
created the most orderly conduct in both public and private life of the country
since independence.
Before becoming head of state, Buhari
had been chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation, minister of
petroleum and natural resource and governor of north eastern state of Nigeria.
He was also chairman of Petroleum (special) Trust Fund under General Sani
Abacha; since 2003, Buhari has sought to become Nigeria’s civilian president,
without success. He contested in the 2003 and 2007 presidential elections under
the platform of the All Nigerian People’s Party, losing out on both occasions
to the Peoples Democratic Party candidates. He fell out of the leadership of
the All Nigerian People’s Party and succeeded in pulling out with him some of
the supporters of the party which formed the Congress for Progressive Change.
He was ratified as the presidential candidate of the party in 2011 elections.
He declared that CPC is ready “to get the PDP off the backs of Nigerians and
hammers on the need for change. (starAfrica.com/en/news)
Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was born
on Nov 20, 1957 in Otuoke, Bayelsa state south-south zone, Nigeria. He is a
Ph.D. holder in hydrobiology and fisheries. He was appointed as Science
Inspector of Education; Rivers state Ministry of Education between 1983 and
1993. He took up employment as a lecturer in the State College of Education. He
was appointed Assistant Director of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas
Development Commission. His desire to better the lot of the people motivated
him to go into politics in 1998. Simplicity, charisma, quiet strength, and
determination made him an ideal running mate to chief D.S.P, Alamieyeseigha on
the Bayelsa PDP gubernatorial ticket. They won the elections and he served as a
deputy governor from 1999 to 11, December 2000. But on 12, December 2005, he
became the substantive governor of
Bayelsa state. After that, fate once again beckoned on him to a higher height.
As he was busy preparing for a re-election as a state governor, the PDP,
nominated him as a running mate to the presidential candidate, Alhaji Umaru
Yar’Adua. On May 29, 2007; he was inaugurated as Nigeria’s Vice- President.
In February 9, 2010, Dr. Jonathan
assumed office as Nigeria’s Acting President by virtue of a National Assembly’s
resolution empowering him following President Yar’Adua’s long absence for
Medical attention in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was sworn in on
May 6, 2010 as President, Commander-in-chief of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
In April, 2011 the incumbent
President Goodluck Jonathan was re-elected as President, Commander-in-chief of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and with a transformation agenda. (http://www.goodluckjonathanfor2011.com)
1.3
AN OVERVIEW OF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS IN NIGERIA
A campaign is a series of actions
that are intended to achieve a particular result, especially in politics or
business. Oota (2011:1) adds that campaigns are exciting events where oratory
is on display and love shared though sometimes thugs and other violent
characters may be out to unleash mayhem on innocent party supporters.
The Nigerian saga of political campaigns,
which has great bearing on our contemporary situation, has its roots in the
pre-independence era with the formation of political parties. Appadorai
(2003:282) states that a political party is an organised group of citizens who
hold similar political opinions and who work to get control of the government
in order that the policies in which they are interested may be carried into
effect. Since the Pre-Independence and First Republic of 1959 and 1964
respectively, political parties have participated in political campaigns which
prepared them for the general elections. But, political parties have had their
ideological differences, which were reflected in their manifestos. Mohammed J.
(2004:144-145), (Ogbodo, 2011:109), (Mohammed, A. 2004:143).
Thereafter, other successive
elections in Nigeria were the 1979, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011. Each
of these elections was not without vibrant political campaigns by the various
parties that aspired to rule the country. Some of these were transition elections
organized by military regimes that had to hand over power to a democratic
civilian government (1979,1993 and 1999) while the elections held in 1964,
1983, 2003, 2007 and 2011 were organized by incumbent civilian governments
whose offices and positions were also in contest. (Sekibo, 2010), (Ogbodo,
2011:140).
In the 2011 elections which is the
period under study, there were 63 political parties but a total of 54 submitted
candidates for various elective positions (Ogbodo, 2011:162) and (Corcoran
2011). This is against the 9 political parties that participated in the 1959
and 1964 general elections. However, this set the stage for a tougher
presidential campaign, for no fewer than 21 political parties presented
candidates for the elections. Prominent among the 21 political parties are:
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Labour Party (LP),
Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA), and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
This, therefore, made the political atmosphere in Nigeria to become undoubtedly
charged and political campaigns took centre stage. Ogbodo, (2011:162) observes
that instead of parties competing to better the lot of the electorate, it has
become warfare with each party trying to defeat and if possible eliminate the
opponents.
The contest for who occupies the
exalted office of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria is certainly democratic (Oota, 2011:1).
However, one of the major avenues which the electorate’s minds were prepared
for the elections was through the political campaigns of these various
presidential candidates. This was also the same avenue whereby these
presidential candidates sold their party manifestos and (also) made their
campaign promises to the electorate. The people then took out time to watch
their candidates exhibit their understanding of the economy, security and their
welfare in terms of programmes and policies.
1.4 TYPES OF CAMPAIGNS
There are different kinds of
campaigns, some of which are political campaign, advertising campaign, and
military campaign.
Political campaign is vote-seeking
activities: a series of events, for example rallies and speeches that are
intended to persuade voters to vote for a specific politician or party (Encarta
2009). Also, Ayeni-Akeke, (2008:83) adds that political campaign is an
important exertion in presenting or marketing a candidate for an elective
office. In other words, it is an organized effort which seeks to influence the
decision making process within a specific group. The message of the campaign
contains the ideas that the candidate wants to share with the voters. The
message often consists of several talking points about policy. These points
summarize the main idea of campaign and are repeated frequently in order to
create a lasting impression with the voters. The objective of every campaign
speech is to convince the electorate that they have the blueprint for tackling
the numerous challenges facing the country. For example, in Nigeria issues like
power generation and distribution, job creation, the nation’s general economic
revival, industrial development, repositioning of the education sector, revival
of health sector delivery, security situation in the land and the fight against
corruption featured prominently as they indeed dominated the campaign speeches
of the presidential candidates. As such, language use in political campaigns
has certain characteristics which differentiate it from other varieties of
language use. For instance, certain words are repeated, the objective being to
condition the minds of the electorate. However, it is noted that some of the
features of language use are without timelines and specific strategies for actualization.
Talking point is a succinct statement
designed to persuasively support one side taken on an issue. Such statements
can either be free standing or created as retorts to the opposition’s talking
points and are frequently used in public relations, particularly in areas heavy
in debate such as politics and marketing (Wikipedia).
However, in many elections, the
opposition party will try to get candidate “off message” by bringing up policy
or personal questions that are not related to the talking points. Most
campaigns prefer to keep the message broad in order to attract the most
potential voters. Unfortunately, a message
that is too narrow can alienate voters or show the candidate down with
explaining details. For example in the 2008 American presidential election John
McCain originally used a message that focused on his patriotism and political
experience. “Country First”; later the message was charged to shift attention
to his role as “The Original Maverick” within the political establishment. Barack
Obama ran on a consistent, simple message of ‘change’ throughout his campaign.
In other words, if the message is created carefully, it will assure the
candidate victory at the polls.
In addition, in modern politics, the
most high profile political campaigns are focused on candidates for head of
state or head of government, often a President or Prime-Minister (Wikipedia).
This was the situation in Nigeria in the 2011 presidential campaign.
Kessel, (1998:79) observes those
substandard differences that exist between nomination politics and electoral
politics. He says nomination campaigns are aimed at getting delegates but
electoral campaigns are aimed at winning votes and are party wide and
nationwide. This takes off fully after the acceptance speech, division is put
aside, and the party is transformed into a victory rally. He further explains
that the presidential candidate is joined by the vice presidential candidate,
and both are joined by their families. Other party leaders, those who have held
key positions and others who have sought the nominations themselves, make
appearances at the presidential campaigns to symbolize the party wide support
to be given the nominee.
Also important is that campaign in
politics has assumed a complex dimension in recent years due to the major
breakthrough in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Unlike the
campaigns in the past, advances in media technology have streamlined the
process, thereby giving candidates more options to reach even larger groups of
constituents with very little physical effort.
This claim is further supported by
Oota, (2011:1) that in advanced democracies, particularly in the United States
of America, oration and conduct at debates and rallies are some of the
benchmarks used to gauge the popularity of all those seeking political offices.
Suffice it to say that packaging of campaigns in terms of slogans and contacts
are also the main key in advanced democracies and this window of popularity and
acceptability was well explored by the current president of the USA, Barack
Obama through his grassroots mobilization of the people. We can say that to
some extent the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in
Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan employed a similar campaign pattern, as in
the neighbour to neighbour campaign advertisement and the frequent
sophisticated electronic campaign.
Advertising campaign is another form
of campaign which is similar to political campaign in terms of its language
use. It is a planned and organized series of actions intended to achieve a
specific goal, especially fighting for or against something or raising people’s
awareness of something. Wright (1983:8) remarks that advertising is a powerful
communication force and a vital marketing tool helping to sell goods and
services, image and ideas. Similarly, Roderick (1980:4) defines advertising as
“a message specified by its originator, carried by a communication system
intended to influence and/or inform an unknown audience.
However, military campaign tends to
address a series of military or terrorist operations taking place in one area
over a period, intended to achieve a specific objective. It is related to the
political campaign in terms of military coup speeches and military heads of
state’s speeches as the purpose is political and having some elements of
political language (Abaya 2008:2).
Finally, there is a common thought
unit on the definitions of political, advertising, and military campaigns that
is geared towards achieving a specific goal. The study of the presidential
campaign speeches is concerned with the political campaign speech types, to
seek votes.In particular, the linguistic stylistic analysis of the speeches of
the presidential candidates of the two opposing parties, Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari Rtd. of
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), will be carried out.
1.5 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
Political campaign speeches are one of the
major avenues through which the contestants vying for the various political
positions in their parties and the government of the country win votes. The
speeches of these candidates are conveyed through the most effective tool of
communication which is language, to achieve their objectives. Apart from making
attempts to garner vote and to canvass for supports, political aspirants try to
make themselves understood by their listeners. Often times, misconceptions
arise because of the electorate’s level of education, their linguistic
background, and the complex nature of language; these phenomena at times result
in the aspirants loss of massive support, as the major tool the aspirants rely
on is language. In view of this, there is the need to critically examine the
speeches of the presidential aspirants in the 2011 election in Nigeria; since
meanings are not just in the lexical entities that make up a sentence but to a
very large extent, determined by the syntactic casing that houses an utterance
and the context of the expression. Furthermore, Leckie-Tarry (1995:5) observes
that understanding language must take into account not only the nature of the
text, but also the discursive processes by which text is produced and
interpreted in this regard, the speeches. Bearing this in mind, the study seeks
to investigate the structure/nature of the campaign speeches that generated the
specific semantic configuration that emerged and the contexts that enhanced
this meaning outcome which was directed at achieving specific goals
(objectives) by these politicians.
This study is therefore an attempt to
answer the following questions:
a.
How
does the language use of these presidential candidates reflect their
idiosyncratic nature?
b.
What
role does context play in these presidential campaign speeches and how do the
speeches vary in different contexts?
c.
Which
rhetorical and linguistic devices are most prominent in these presidential
campaign speeches?
d.
What
common linguistic/stylistic traits are prevalent in these speeches?
1.6 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
It is an indubitable fact that
campaign speech is an important tool employed by politicians to express views
and feelings to the public with the sole intention of reshaping and redirecting
the electorates’ opinions to agree with their manifesto. Hence, campaign
speeches are generally full of persuasion, manipulation, deception, lies,
hyperbole, and ambiguity which are conveyed through a deliberate choice of
words.
This study examines the presidential
campaign speeches of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer, Dr.
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) flag
bearer, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) in the 2011 elections. It critically
examines these presidential speeches within the scope of linguistic stylistics.
Specifically, the research intends to achieve the following objectives:
a. To show that the language use of
these presidential candidates reflect their idiosyncratic nature.
b. To project that context plays a
dominant role in presidential campaign speeches.
c. To critically explore the
rhetorical and linguistic devices that are prominent in these presidential
campaign speeches.
d. To determine the common
linguistic/stylistic features or traits that are prevalent in the speeches of
these candidates.
1.7 JUSTIFICATION
FOR THE STUDY
Nigeria has witnessed one civilian
government after the other since independence and the campaign speeches made by
the various presidential candidates helped to determine who ruled the country
at each point in time. However, the electorate was not cognizant of the
linguistic stylistic significance of the campaign speeches. Therefore, there is
need for this study to broaden their understanding of the varying linguistic
stylistic features of the speeches. Its findings are of benefit to students of language
and those who want to take part in politics, to re-awaken the consciousness of
Nigerian politicians to the use of language and suggest a better way of using
language to carry people along. The study is significant to the extent that
though several researches have been carried out in pragmatics, critical
discourse analysis and linguistic
stylistic analysis of political speeches in such areas as the language of
politics, propaganda in politics, the language of political campaigns in the
print media, military coup speeches, advertisement and religion, just to
mention a few, hardly is there any of such research effort specifically on
linguistic stylistic analysis of
Nigerian presidential campaign speeches
of 2011 elections.
1.8 SCOPE
AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This research does not constitute a
linguistic stylistic analysis of the campaign speeches of the 21 presidential
candidates that contested the 2011 elections but, focuses on the candidates
from two major opposing parties namely: Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), and General Mohammed Buhari rtd; Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC). The choice of these parties is based on the fact that
these major parties (PDP, CPC,) have
captured the majority of the electorate in the country, though CPC is more of a
regional party, however, the PDP has a national outlook.
The study looks at the 2011 elections
so as to make the research more current and reliable. The focus of this work is
the linguistic stylistic study of the campaign speeches. It is difficult to
study all the campaign speeches of the presidential candidates. As a result,
the study has been restricted to some
selected speeches in the north-west and north –central zones. A total of eight
(8) speeches for both candidates are examined in this research. Relevant
portions of the selected speeches are extracted and analysed from the
perspective of the adopted linguistic framework, which is the systemic
functional linguistic approach.
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