Comparative Metafunction Analysis of Peter Obi and Bola Ahmed Tinubu's 2023 Online Presidential Campaigns

Moses Olusanya Ayoola

doi:10.56201/ijelcs.vol.10.no1.2025.pg62.73

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Comparative Metafunction Analysis of Peter Obi and Bola Ahmed Tinubu's 2023 Online Presidential Campaigns

Moses Olusanya Ayoola

Abstract

This study explores the linguistic construction of political ideology and identity in the 2023 Nigerian presidential campaign advertisements of Peter Obi and Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Employing Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) as the primary analytical framework, the study investigates the interpersonal, experiential, and textual metafunctions of selected campaign adverts. Findings reveal that Obi’s advertisements strategically deploy declarative moods, relational processes, and topical themes to position himself as a reformist and empathetic leader, inviting cognitive and ideological alignment from the electorate. Tinubu’s adverts, in contrast, emphasize material processes and imperative moods, constructing an identity rooted in action, pragmatism, and developmental leadership. The comparative metafunctional analysis underscores how both candidates’ linguistic choices reflect distinct political ideologies and campaign strategies. The study concludes that campaign advertisements in Nigeria’s political landscape serve as complex linguistic and semiotic instruments for constructing and projecting candidate identity, political ideology, and voter persuasion strategies

Keywords

CampaignMetafunction AnalysisMood and ModalityTransitivityThemePolitical IdeologyIdentity ConstructionNigerian Elections

References

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Comparative Metafunction Analysis of Peter Obi and Bola Ahmed Tinubu's 2023 Online Presidential Campaigns

Abstract

Keywords

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