Theory of Strategic Silence: How Nigerian Power Elites Manage Communication Absence as Political Control

This study develops an original theory of strategic silence as a political communication practice among Nigerian power elites, examining how deliberate communication absence is deployed as a tool of political control, accountability evasion, and information management in the Nigerian governance context. Communication studies has extensively theorised what political actors say through media, but the strategic management of communication absence, what political elites do not say, which crises they do not address, and which institutions they leave informationally dark, has received insufficient theoretical attention. This study employs a multi-method critical political communication research design combining three years of longitudinal silence mapping applied to 12 case studies of major political and governance crises from 2020 to 2023 where executive communication silence was documented (Phase 1), discourse analysis of the media and public response to identified silences (Phase 2), interviews with 24 former government communication officials, political consultants, and political journalists about strategic silence as a deliberate communication choice (Phase 3), and formal theory construction through systematic comparison of cases and practitioner accounts (Phase 4). The theoretical framework synthesises silence studies, strategic communication theory, political communication theory, and African governance communication. Findings generate an original nine-category taxonomy of strategic silence types used by Nigerian power elites, from tactical delay to permanent institutional communicative absence. Strategic silence is shown to impose significant democratic costs including accountability deflection, media agenda fragmentation, and opposition exhaustion. The study contributes the first comprehensive theoretical account of strategic silence in Nigerian political communication.

Keywords: strategic silence, political communication, Nigeria, power elites, accountability.