FACE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI'S ENDSARS ADDRESS: A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study examines face management strategies deployed by President Muhammadu Buhari in
his nationwide broadcast of 22nd October 2020, delivered two days after security operatives
opened fire on unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos State. The study is anchored on
Brown and Levinson's (1987) politeness theory. Adopting a qualitative design, the study
purposively sampled ten excerpts from the twenty-seven numbered paragraphs of the address. The
analysis of excerpts identifies five dominant strategies: solidarity-building through inclusive
pronouns and kinship terms; bald-on-record face-threatening directives against alleged
"hijackers" of the protest; empathetic mitigation designed to project institutional benevolence;
self-glorifying assertions of governmental achievement as a face-restoration device; and offrecord evasion around the Lekki Toll Gate shooting as a strategy of face-protection through
strategic silence. The study thus concludes that Buhari's face-work was structurally bifurcated:
conciliatory toward the Nigerian public as a generalised audience, but confrontational toward the
youth-protester in-group, a pragmatic dissonance that substantially explains the address's
documented failure to de-escalate the crisis.
Keywords: Crisis Communication, #EndSARS Protest, Face Management, Muhammadu Buhari
Pragmatics, Politeness Theory, Political Discourse,