Abstract: Election periods tends to offer critical opportunity for change to the better especially for countries that practice democracy as their governance choice. Nigeria, like many African countries, in the turn of the century, switched to this governance style. The 2023 general election was expected to be a critical turning point in the nation’s democratic journey with politicians employing persuasive language to influence public opinion especially during campaigns. Over time, by utilizing rhetoric, exaggeration, and unrealistic promises, politicians aimed to foster unwarranted hope among voters. And this reliance on misleading tactics poses a serious problem as it misinforms citizens and cultivates unsustainable expectations that erode faith in the democratic process over time. This study, relying on the survey descriptive design, examines the pragmatic nature of misrepresentation in political discourse through a comparative analysis of the speeches delivered by Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu, and Atiku Abubakar during the Nigerian 2023 general elections. Through the theorization of loaded language, the study investigates the linguistic choices, speech patterns, and rhetorical strategies employed by these prominent candidates to shape public perception in order to acquire or maintain power. The result shows an overreliance on rhetoric that inspires through ambitious vision rather than informs through practical reason. It also shows politicians to be prone to presenting themselves and solutions in a glorified and over simplified terms that makes governance to be unrealistically achievable. Overall, the research contributes to a better understanding on how language is manipulated in political campaigns and to empower citizens with the ability to critically evaluate politicians’ messages.
Keywords: Pragmatics, Political Discourse, Misrepresentation, Rhetoric, Democracy.
