IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ATIKU ABUBAKAR’S 2023 MANIFESTO

Abstract

This paper examines how an opposition presidential candidate in Nigeria employs transitivity structures to represent social problems, assign agency and construct ideological positions in their manifestoes. Specifically, the study focuses the manifesto of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2023 general elections. Analysis of data is predicated on a fusion of Halliday’s Transitivity System of Systemic Functional Linguistics and van Dijk’s Ideological Square. Using a qualitative interpretative design, the data analysed from the manifesto are six(6) excerpts drawn from the candidate’s perspectives on lingering security threats in the country. The findings reveal that the opposition candidate deploys components of the transitivity structures from the manifesto particularly participants, material and relational processes to represent in-group and out--group members in relation to the scourge of insecurity in the country. The findings also show that the ruling party is negatively constructed through direct and indirect indictment while the opposition party is framed in positive light. The framing of insecurity in the country portrays the ruling party as colossal failure while the opposition candidate is positioned as embodiment of reformist and messianic ideologies needed to rescue the country from security threats.