Ideological Points of View and Transitivity Selections in A Nigerian Primary Election Memoir

Abstract

Studies on Nigerian primary elections have examined the interface between primaries, intra-party conflicts and general election irregularities. Not many studies have exteriorised the ideological points of view determining the engagements of political actors in primary elections with reference to the narratives of political actors. Hence, this study did discourse analysis of a Nigerian election memoir- Love Does not Win Elections- to determine the ideological points of view that political actors index through selections from the transitivity system. 127 samples were analysed using theoretical insights from van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Stuart’s model of point of view and aspects of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Political actors in Nigerian primary elections hold conflictual, patronage, pecuniary, ethnic, patriarchal, religious and welfarist points of view. Electoral consumerism, clientelism, ethnicism, patriarchy, theological determinism and welfare state variously serve as ideological backgrounds for the points of view. The points of view are linguistically indexed through material, mental, relational and verbal clauses. There is the need for a re-orientation of political actors in Nigerian primary elections to ensure the emergence of a genuinely democratic culture.