The 2023 general election in Nigeria was among the nation’s fiercest in recent history. The dynamics were different from past elections. For example, it was the first time since 2003 that Muhammadu Buhari, a cult-like figure in Northern Nigeria, was not on the ballot box. Buhari consistently garnered between eight and twelve million votes in every election he participated in, so his absence opened up votes, especially from northern Nigeria, for all the leading presidential aspirants. Also, it was the first time since 1993 that candidates with the same religious faith ran on a joint ticket. Historically, there has been an unwritten agreement that elective positions rotate between North and South, as well as between Christians and Muslims. Thus, somewhat expectedly, the All Progressives Congress’ joint ticket of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, both Muslims, led to the emergence of the “Muslim-Muslim Ticket” phenomenon and the pervasive use of religious rhetoric as never before experienced in Nigerian elections. The study adopts a multidisciplinary approach to examine the strategies and rhetoric employed by politicians to leverage religious and ethnic identities in the 2023 general elections. Media discourses, political speeches and voter sentiments were analysed to determine the intricate interplay between religion, politics and identity, and how they shaped electoral behaviour and outcomes in the 2023 general elections. Given Nigeria’s religious and sociopolitical secularity and plurality, the findings reveal the complexities inherent in manipulating religious sentiments for political purposes and how it impacts democracy, unity and social cohesion.
| Published in | Communication and Linguistics Studies (Volume 11, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11 |
| Page(s) | 1-11 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Elections, Muslim-Muslim Ticket, Identity Politics, Religious Rhetoric
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APA Style
Adebayo, J. O. (2025). Daddy's Yes-Man and Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Analysing Religious Rhetoric in the 2023 Nigerian General Elections. Communication and Linguistics Studies, 11(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11
ACS Style
Adebayo, J. O. Daddy's Yes-Man and Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Analysing Religious Rhetoric in the 2023 Nigerian General Elections. Commun. Linguist. Stud. 2025, 11(1), 1-11. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11,
author = {Joseph Olusegun Adebayo},
title = {Daddy's Yes-Man and Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Analysing Religious Rhetoric in the 2023 Nigerian General Elections},
journal = {Communication and Linguistics Studies},
volume = {11},
number = {1},
pages = {1-11},
doi = {10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cls.20251101.11},
abstract = {The 2023 general election in Nigeria was among the nation’s fiercest in recent history. The dynamics were different from past elections. For example, it was the first time since 2003 that Muhammadu Buhari, a cult-like figure in Northern Nigeria, was not on the ballot box. Buhari consistently garnered between eight and twelve million votes in every election he participated in, so his absence opened up votes, especially from northern Nigeria, for all the leading presidential aspirants. Also, it was the first time since 1993 that candidates with the same religious faith ran on a joint ticket. Historically, there has been an unwritten agreement that elective positions rotate between North and South, as well as between Christians and Muslims. Thus, somewhat expectedly, the All Progressives Congress’ joint ticket of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, both Muslims, led to the emergence of the “Muslim-Muslim Ticket” phenomenon and the pervasive use of religious rhetoric as never before experienced in Nigerian elections. The study adopts a multidisciplinary approach to examine the strategies and rhetoric employed by politicians to leverage religious and ethnic identities in the 2023 general elections. Media discourses, political speeches and voter sentiments were analysed to determine the intricate interplay between religion, politics and identity, and how they shaped electoral behaviour and outcomes in the 2023 general elections. Given Nigeria’s religious and sociopolitical secularity and plurality, the findings reveal the complexities inherent in manipulating religious sentiments for political purposes and how it impacts democracy, unity and social cohesion.},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Daddy's Yes-Man and Muslim-Muslim Ticket: Analysing Religious Rhetoric in the 2023 Nigerian General Elections AU - Joseph Olusegun Adebayo Y1 - 2025/01/17 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11 DO - 10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11 T2 - Communication and Linguistics Studies JF - Communication and Linguistics Studies JO - Communication and Linguistics Studies SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2380-2529 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20251101.11 AB - The 2023 general election in Nigeria was among the nation’s fiercest in recent history. The dynamics were different from past elections. For example, it was the first time since 2003 that Muhammadu Buhari, a cult-like figure in Northern Nigeria, was not on the ballot box. Buhari consistently garnered between eight and twelve million votes in every election he participated in, so his absence opened up votes, especially from northern Nigeria, for all the leading presidential aspirants. Also, it was the first time since 1993 that candidates with the same religious faith ran on a joint ticket. Historically, there has been an unwritten agreement that elective positions rotate between North and South, as well as between Christians and Muslims. Thus, somewhat expectedly, the All Progressives Congress’ joint ticket of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, both Muslims, led to the emergence of the “Muslim-Muslim Ticket” phenomenon and the pervasive use of religious rhetoric as never before experienced in Nigerian elections. The study adopts a multidisciplinary approach to examine the strategies and rhetoric employed by politicians to leverage religious and ethnic identities in the 2023 general elections. Media discourses, political speeches and voter sentiments were analysed to determine the intricate interplay between religion, politics and identity, and how they shaped electoral behaviour and outcomes in the 2023 general elections. Given Nigeria’s religious and sociopolitical secularity and plurality, the findings reveal the complexities inherent in manipulating religious sentiments for political purposes and how it impacts democracy, unity and social cohesion. VL - 11 IS - 1 ER -
Journalism and Media Studies Department, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
