Rhetorical and Ideological Strategies in Campaign Jingles on Osun 2022 Gubernatorial Election

Abstract

The 2022 governorship election in Osun State is one of the most discussed political developments in Nigeria and has only received passing coverage in national dailies. In this study, we explored the rhetorical and ideological strategies in selected political jingles used during the exercise. The investigation was based on the eclectic consideration of Aristotle’s rhetoric genres, Van Dijk's ideological structures and speech act theory. The descriptive qualitative study examined six campaign jingles broadcast on Rave 91.7 FM, including those of the All Progressive Congress (APC), the People's Democratic Party (PDP), and the Accord Party. The jingles were evaluated through pragmatic and critical discourse analysis lenses. The study revealed how rhetorical techniques such as negative other-representation of political opponents, foregrounding achievements through evidentiality, reliance on political ethos, allusion and appeal to citizens' plights, and appeal to voters' logic and reason were used in the examined jingles. It highlighted that the rhetorical categories were quoted in epideictic, deliberative and forensic persuasive frames, and were indexed by illocutionary acts of warning, advising, pleading, promising, assuring, disclaiming, rejecting, boasting, and praising. Overall, lexicalisation, comparison, actor description, inference, and disclaimer were employed to elevate the status of the in-group while diminishing the status of contending political parties, as the parties involved locked horns over the control of the state