PRAGMATIC ACTS IN PRE-ELECTION DEBATES: 2012 GUBERNATORIAL CONTEST IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Language is an indispensable tool in the human society for it engenders communication, understanding and interaction. In a democratic setting, it propels people to vote, debate or revolt; it is a major determinant of the fate of political office seekers during elections especially in the first world countries. Thus, politicians must strive to use language appropriately to package their programmes in order to garner more votes during elections. This study aims at examining the effects the utterances of political candidates could have on their audience. The 2012 governorship pre-election debate in Ondo State of Nigeria was used as a case study. The contest was organised by the Nigerian Election Debate Group – a conglomeration of stakeholders in the election. Six political parties participated in the debate but the responses of candidates of the three most prominent parties were considered in this study. The utterances of the participants were transcribed from the video recording of the debate which was sourced from YouTube on the internet and the summary of the utterances is presented in tabular form. The analysis is based on the speech acts theories of J. L. Austin and John Searle. The utterances were classified into direct and indirect illocutionary acts identified by John Searle. The major findings of the study indicate that political aspirants in their speeches make use of more commissives than other illocutionary acts, and use requesting rather than ordering, an illocutionary act associated with the military. An incumbent leader aspiring to be re-elected makes use of directive illocutionary acts in order to intimate the masses with his past accomplishments, and thereby imploring them to re-vote him into power so that his “good works” may continue. The implications of these findings are that effective language use is strategic to winning elections as it is required to explain political plans and programs; political campaign must be issue-based with convincing evidences that the nitty-gritty of governance is well understood; an incumbent seeking re-election must ensure that he performs creditably in order to make an easy triumph in future contests. In conclusion, the ability of an aspiring political leader to make use of appropriate illocutionary acts can earn him the support of the electorates.