Persuasive Functions of Metaphor in Selected Government Ministers’ Interactions with Nigerian Citizens
Keywords:
metaphor, politics, discourse, persuasion, interactionAbstract
Formal government minister-public interactions are recent political and democratic events in Nigeria designed to inform people about government policies and actions and appeal for positive responses.
Existing literature on political discourses have concentrated on ceremonial speeches, campaigns,
manifestoes, and parliamentary debates with little attention paid to the peculiar use of metaphors in
government ministers-public interactions in Nigeria This study therefore examined discursive issues
and metaphor use in selected government minister-public interactions in Nigeria to determine their
persuasive function(s). Charteris-Black’s Critical Metaphor Analysis was adopted to explain metaphor
and Brown’s Persuasive Techniques to determine the functions. Data were from interactions of the
National Good Tour (NGGT) of Nigeria between 2012 and 2014, collected through downloads and
live recordings on radio and television. Texts were transcribed and subjected to Discourse analysis.
Findings revealed discursive to include, nation building, politics/democracy, and citizen’s roles in
nation building. Persuasive functions identified include, response reinforcement, response shaping and
response change of the citizenry to issues identified. These were conceived in metaphors of games and
sports represented in Politics as a contest; movement captured in Politics as a journey; building, which
identified the politicians as builders and the nation as a construction site, and life and death metaphor,
reflecting the nation as ailing. This study increased our understanding of metaphors and how they
enhance persuasion and enrich the language use of public interactions and political discourse
generally. It also increases understanding of the political realities especially in the Nigerian context.
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