The Influence of Greco-Roman Rhetorical Traditions on Contemporary Political Oratory in South West Nigeria

Political oratory in South West Nigeria has long drawn on elaborate traditions of persuasion, deliberation, and public argumentation that bear recognisable parallels with the rhetorical conventions of ancient Greece and Rome. This study examines the influence of Greco-Roman rhetorical traditions, particularly the Aristotelian modes of ethos, pathos, and logos, on contemporary political speeches delivered by elected representatives in Oyo and Lagos States. A descriptive-qualitative methodology was adopted, analysing twenty recorded gubernatorial and senatorial speeches from 2019 to 2023 using classical rhetorical analysis as the interpretive framework. The speeches were transcribed and coded against Aristotle's Rhetoric and Cicero's De Oratore, with particular attention to argument structure, appeal to authority, emotional manipulation, and the organisation of discourse. Findings indicate that contemporary Yoruba political orators consistently deploy Aristotelian deliberative rhetoric, though they embed it within indigenous Yoruba praise poetry traditions, creating a hybrid oratorical form. The study also finds that logos-driven argumentation is less prevalent than pathos and ethos appeals, mirroring patterns identified in late Roman Republican political discourse. A significant dependence on communal memory, ancestral authority, and performative moral credibility aligns with Roman concepts of dignitas and auctoritas. The study concludes that Greco-Roman rhetorical frameworks remain analytically valuable for understanding Nigerian political communication and recommends their inclusion in the Classical Studies undergraduate curriculum as applied contemporary case studies.

Keywords: rhetoric, political oratory, Aristotle, South West Nigeria, Yoruba discourse