A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU'S INAUGURAL SPEECH

Abstract

Inaugural addresses serve as a new president's first formal platform to outline their vision and egitim their authority, making them rich sites for ideological and persuasive discourse. This study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), drawing on Van Dijk's (2006) ideological square and micro-strategies, to examine the discursive features of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's 2023 inaugural speech. The analysis focuses on how linguistic choices construct political ideologies and power relations. Findings reveal a strategic use of pronominals to foster in-group solidarity and out-group distancing, alongside key micro-strategies such as evidentiality, national self-glorification, and lexicalisation. The study concludes that Tinubu's speech is a calculated political performance designed to unify a national "self" while subtly marginalising a political "other," thereby attesting to the intricate relationship between language, power, and ideology in the Nigerian political context.