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International Review of Humanities Studies

International Review of Humanities Studies

Abstract

Studies on political speeches in Nigeria have focused essentially on the speeches of political office inaugural speeches and speeches of political office holders, while not much appears to be done on the speeches of candidates who did not succeed in the election. Thus, this study undertakes a critical analysis of discourse and ideological strategies in the presidential campaign speeches of Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, in the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria. Mr Peter Obi's speech in Akwa Ibom State is purposively selected as our data for this study, and Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA), with emphasis on the “ideological square”, is our chosen theoretical framework. In all, eight (8) excerpts are selected from the speech as our data for the study, and they are analysed following van Dijk’s ideological square in his socio-cognitive approach. The findings reveal the significant role that language plays in expressing, changing, and reproducing ideologies in political campaign speeches and the role ideology plays in constructing the positive image of the self and the negative image of others.

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