Language and political ideology : a critical discourse analysis of fourth Republic Nigerian Inaugural Presidential speeches between 1999-2015

Abstract

Language embodies the channel through which political beliefs and ideologies can be communicated. However, the extent to which this is manifested in the language used by politicians in inaugural speeches has not been sufficiently investigated in the context of a diachronic study and in the context of Nigeria as a nation. Hence, this study argues that Nigerian presidential inaugural speeches between 1999 and 2015 construct ideologies through discourse and discursive features that reveal the socio-political situation of Nigeria. The study employed two theoretical frameworks: Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and Wodak's Historical Discourse Analysis, which is a version of the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The CDA helps analyse the political ideologies, discourse features, discursive patterns, historical contexts and the manifestation of political power in the speeches. The chosen theories aid the study in accounting for modal and clausal functions of the speeches and the link between history and the speech being investigated. On the other hand, the SFG helps investigate the nature of the mood structure and patterns and how they help resonate with political ideologies. Six speeches by former Nigerian presidents were purposely sampled for the study. These include the inaugural speeches of Presidents Obasanjo in 1999 and 2003, Yar' Adua in 2007, Jonathan in 2010 and 2011, and Buhari in 2015. The study found that Nigerian presidents both explicitly and implicitly communicate ideology in the examined inaugural speeches. The historical accounts of the speeches show that each speech is special in its own right as they signal landmark changes and events in the political history of Nigeria. In terms of the explicit ideology, the study found out that Obasanjo and Jonathan in 1999, 2003, 2009, and 2011 greatly relied on the use of religious ideology as a rallying ground and ideological underpinning compared to Yar’Adua and Buhari in 2007 and 2015, whose speeches were more framed in a business-like pattern and straight to the point. On the implicit side, Obasanjo, in Obasanjo I, pushes the reformational and divinity ideologies; in Obasanjo II, the healer and the divinity ideology are foregrounded. In Yar’Adua, the self-diminishing and mitigation ideology that puts power in the government's institutions rather than individuals is deployed. Also, Yar'Adua deploys democratic reform, sincerity, and change ideologies. In Jonathan I, loyalty to Nigerians and political structures and personalities is communicated as an ideology. In Jonathan II, reformation and the people's motivation for unity and progress are communicated as the main ideologies. Then, in Buhari, the democratic reformation ideology is mainly communicated.