American Research Journal of English and Literature

Candidates (students) aspiring for posts in Nigerian tertiary institutions usually engage in pre-election discourses (election campaigns) to convince prospective voters that they have clear, comprehensive manifestoes to actualize if voted into power as Student Union President, Treasurer, Public Relations Officer (PRO), and other positions of authority in their respective campuses. The campaigns take a more organized, elaborate and persuasive dimension on the day popularly known as “Manifesto Night”. This study investigates the pragmatic and stylistic features of Student Union Election discourses in Nigerian tertiary institutions, using a university as a case study. Only five micro-structures are selected from a campaign speech (macro-structure) of an aspirant who is popularly known as Plato. Hinging on Bach and Harnish’s Speech Act Theory and Lawal’s Communicative Model Theory, this study finds out that Student Union Election discourse in Nigerian tertiary institutions is characterized by a wide range of pragmatic and stylistic strategies which essentially make it persuasively potent. These strategies include: good introduction, allusion, elaboration, skilful selection of speech acts, use of people-inclusive personal pronouns, reliance on figurative language, reminiscences, repetitions, direct call to action and blunt attack on status-quo.