Abstract

This study applies functional theory of campaign discourse proposed by William Benoit for United States political debates and the theory of illocutions to the televised governorship debate of Lagos State. As opposed to other studies that have applied it to the United States, Finland, etc., it applies this theory to an African political debate. It asserts as against others that candidates distinguish themselves from their opponents using the major functions of campaign discourse in a reversed order, that is, attacks, defences and acclaims rather than acclaims, attacks and defences which is popular in US debates. Furthermore, it also examines how attacks are pragmatically encoded by candidates in Lagos State debate, what illocutionary forms candidates utilize when informing voters of an opponent’s potential costs/weakness. Thus, this current study can be viewed as a comparative study that aims to unravel a sequence present in Nigerian debate different from what is obtainable in US political debates.