Emilokanism as Afrocentric Communication Theory

In this article, the author has systematically theorized Emilokanism as an Afrocentric rhetorical framework that would help in analyzing how regional political elites in Nigeria deploy turn-taking discourse to legitimize presidential succession. Emilokan, which is a Yoruba expression, literary meaning “It is my turn”, emerged as a nationally resonant slogan during the 2023 All Progressives Congress presidential primary in Nigeria, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared to delegates; “Emilokan, Yoruba lokan” (“It is my turn; it is the turn of the Yoruba”). No doubt, while existing scholarship has extensively theorized zoning, consociationalism, and elite pacts in divided societies, these Eurocentric frameworks inadequately account for, or capture the rhetorical mechanisms through which turn-entitlement is articulated, legitimized, and contested in African political discourse settings. The author has situated Emilokanism to address this decades long gap by conceptualizing turn-taking rhetoric as a distinct communicative practice in which elites in Nigeria construct political legitimacy based on ethno-regional and religious affinity. The author has rooted this postulation on Afrocentric communication epistemology, and critical discourse analysis, the framework, where it postulates that Emilokanism operates through four interconnected rhetorical strategies which are; entitlement framing, issue evasion, spiritual legitimation, and accountability displacement. For the methods, the author employs a mixed-methods design for the study, which consist; quantitative content analysis of 314 newspaper articles across eight Nigerian national dailies (June 2022–December 2025), and which establishes the term’s national salience, while qualitative critical discourse analysis of 45 political speeches and opinion pieces reveals the rhetorical strategies through which turn-entitlement is constructed and curated. The framework to a great extent contributes to Afrocentric communication theory by demonstrating how indigenous linguistic expressions can be theorized as analytic tools, and its implications for understanding democratic accountability, political rhetoric, power relations in African political communication in deeply divided African societies such as Nigeria.