Other Representations in Politics: ‘O To Ge’ Rhetoric in Nigeria’s Election Campaigns
Other Representations in Politics: ‘O To Ge’ Rhetoric in Nigeria’s Election Campaigns

Summary/Abstract: Politics is a battleground for ideological exhibition by different social and political actors, and these actors ensure victory at all cost, even if it sometimes leads to the denigration of opponents through labeling. This paper investigated how the All Progressive Congress (APC) was able to successfully oust the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the government by deploying strategies to present PDP with negative identities during campaigns exercises which preceded the election. Using the inquiry word ʻO to ge Kwaraʼ, 15 videos were recovered from YouTube and they formed the data for the paper. YouTube was selected on the grounds that it serves as an archive for political campaign videos in Nigeria. The selected videos were subjected to analysis through the application of van Dijk’s (2006) approach to Critical Discourse Analysis. The negative identity representation of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 general elections in Kwara State, thrived on the ‘O to ge’ rhetoric and the representations from the vistas of ‘others’. The paper concluded that these negative identity representations are projected through different discourse strategies.

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