Voice of the Opposition a Critical Discourse Analysis of Four Selected Speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Voice of the Opposition a Critical Discourse Analysis of Four Selected Speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Abstract
Political speeches of leaders of opposition parties have been regularly commented both by linguists and other scholars alike to possess the ideology and identity of the speaker, but most of these commentaries are however based on intuition and observation, rather than through empirical investigation.
This research is of the opinion that further empirical approach could be used to justify these commentaries. It focuses on the critical discourse analysis of four selected speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; a Nigerian, former senator, onetime governor, opposition leader and statesman. Tinubu occupies an important position in Nigerian politics.
This research examines the dexterous manipulation of language to express one’s beliefs and ideology. It also examines the political rhetoric and ideological stance present in political speeches of the leaders of opposition parties. The data for the study was extracted online and analysed using the tools of Critical Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Grammar. These tools were used to interpret both the silent and obvious ideologies that informed the use of rhetorical strategies and power interplays.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Language is a mechanism through which information or thoughts are disseminated from one source to another either as communication signs or symbols. It is a means of passing across exchanges among rational beings. Language, whether acquired or learned, is the medium for discharging our emotions, opinions, thoughts, experience, and reasoning. Language is primarily a system of phonetic symbols for the expression of communicable thoughts and feeling (Sapir, 1949:1).
Language and politics are interwoven because language is the tool used to express the opinions, views and philosophies of a speaker. It is the vehicle that transports one’s social, political, and economic stance. It can be used to persuade, dissuade, manipulate and control people’s beliefs. Every language is a system of possibilities; it makes it possible for the speaker to select from those possibilities (Bayode, 2010:27).
The writer is free to choose from the imperative, declarative, interrogative sentence types. He may decide to use the passive rather than the active sentence. According to Salami (2010:26), “language can be used not only to steer people’s thoughts and beliefs but also to control both”. Language is thus one of the major means of creating political discourses.
The plausibility of a political speech is measured by its ability to proficiently tilt the issue at hand and sway the listeners to its side. Since we often deal with people to acquire power, politicians are clever and manipulative in their use of language to persuade the people. The vehicle that politicians use to express their ideologies, beliefs, and identities is language.
Yusuf (1984) examined the presence of semantic ambiguity of communication found in some political speeches, in which he discovered that politicians used expressions that are ambiguous at the lexico-semantic level as a ploy to manipulate and destabilise the mindset of their listeners. This shows that politicians know the efficacy of sound political speeches in political struggle and its usefulness in the dissemination of ideas to their listeners.
According to Beard (2000), “making speeches is a vital part of the politician’s role in announcing policy and persuading people to agree with it”. When commenting on the use of language, Oyeleke (2004:169) stated that “on the international scene, there are examples to show the power, and even tyranny, of the words men use daily. Various nebulous concepts have been encapsulated in different words and expressions”.
In commenting further on language and politics in Nigeria, Oyeleke (2004:170) says “it is little wonder then that in this country we could be victims of the power of words, which explains why the speeches of past politicians in the country used to have such an electric effect on their unwary audience. We remember the punster, Chief S.L. Akintola, and his adroit linguistic skill; the ebullient Adelabu, alias ‘Penkelemesi’ of blessed memory and many others who made the political scene such a memorable reference point”.
Political speeches are imbued with ideologies and show the stance of the speakers and the groups they represent. According to van Dijk (2001), “political discourse may express group ideologies and other beliefs, especially in collective forms of text and talk such as party programs. But many forms of political discourse are produced by individual speakers, and the ways they ‘personalize’ the group beliefs underlie the more particular properties of political discourse.
That is, between social beliefs and discourse we need a cognitive interface that represents personal beliefs, opinions or experiences”. Van Dijk (1998b) on whether politicians are the people that engage in political speeches stated that, “this is the relatively easy part (if we can agree on what ‘politics’ means). However, although crucial in political science and PDA as actors and authors of political discourse and other political practices, politicians are not the only participants in the domain of politics.
From the interactional point of view of discourse analysis, we therefore should also include the various recipients in political communicative events, such as the public, the people, citizens, the ‘masses’, and other groups or categories. That is, once we locate politics and its discourses in the public sphere, many more participants in political communication appear on the stage.”
Voice of the Opposition a Critical Discourse Analysis of Four Selected Speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
The world is characterised by conflicting ideological stances. Many people are still vulnerable to the oratorical prowess of politicians and are influenced easily by ideologies that are ingrained insentience and with refinement by these political actors. The world is imbued by multifarious conflicting ideologies concerning globalisation, democracy, free health care, etc. Scholars should concentrate on the ideologies of the opposition parties in a burgeoning democratic society like Nigeria.
The linguistic means through which these blocs engage in power struggle should be examined. Most of the political discourses that have been analysed are those of presidents, prime-ministers, governors, chairmen and others in power. Little have been done to broaden these analyses to those who want to seize political power through their persuasive and swaying speeches. It is our utmost aim that this research will draw attention to this neglected but important area.
The speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu are expected to show his personal political ideologies and his views from an oppositional perspective. By also examining the rhetorical strategies employed by the speaker, the effect that persuasion and manipulation can have on the audience will also be shown.
Unequivocally, this study is based on questions such as: “what are the kinds of strategies employed by these political intellects to sway their audience and engage in power struggle; how are power and identity displayed through the use of emotive lexis and syntax, and personal deixis; and how are political ideologies constructed, articulated and redefined by linguistic resources; and what is the nature of the procedural frameworks that vividly show the sociolinguistic generalisations of arrangement and uniqueness in relations to their linguistic forms?”
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
The aim of this study is to examine and analyse four selected speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the voice of the opposition parties in Nigeria. This study has the following objectives:
- To reveal what really produces rhetorical strategies in political speeches of opposition parties and the effect that rhetorical strategies have on people;
- To identify the significant linguistic features and pragmatic strategies inherent in the political speeches;
- To analyse how these strategies and linguistic features are being proficiently and manipulatively used;
- To examine the structure and the role of context; and the consequence of these linguistic features and pragmatic acts on the discourse.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Scholars and researchers have carried out analysis of speeches of political leaders in power to show their ideologies. But little attention has been paid to the leaders of the opposition parties. We have decided to expand this research to show the ideologies of the opposition parties. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) should also look at the speeches of the bigwigs of opposition parties and bring out their identities, ideologies, and stances.
This study considers Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s selected speeches as landmark political discourses where the use of language as a tool to achieve ideological and political goal deserves a critical attention. We investigate the plethora of several rhetorical features embedded in the discourse used to sway the people. It is hopeful that this study shall contribute and expand the knowledge of political discourse; and also as a proof that CDA is an empirical tool for analysing the political discourse of opposition parties.
1.5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Among the speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, these selected speeches have been chosen because they depict his personal political ideologies and as a member of the opposition bloc. These will definitely help in critically portraying the ideologies of the man and the opposition parties. Due to the different but trusted theoretical frameworks that are used, we carry out an empirical and critical analysis of these speeches and not a mere commentary on the speeches.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
It is a known maxim that no research has the ability to unravel all the problematic areas in its field and beyond, which thereby made it categorical for the review of all research studies. Hence, this research has its limits due to the barrier of space, resources, exposure and time. It is not feasible to make a comprehensive analysis of all the political speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and of all opposition political parties in Nigeria.
For the purpose of this research, the scope of the study is restricted to some selected political speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Notwithstanding, a good sample of speeches that can plausibly bring out the rhetorical strategies, identities, and persuasive acts are employed in actualising the objectives of the research. Some contextual concepts and linguistic analysis are employed to get at the meaning of the speeches. Thus, we analyse the linguistic and extra-linguistic features inherent in some selected speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to portray the view of the opposition parties, using different theoretical frameworks, most specifically, Critical discourse analysis since CDA is interdisciplinary and multi-methodological.
1.7 METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH
1.7.1 SAMPLING METHOD
The data for this study consist of a corpus of 13,765 words on a thirty page written texts altogether. The data were written and delivered orally in English (British and American) on different dates and locations and were transmitted through the internet. For the purpose of this study, two sources namely: a personal website of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu which contains the compilation of the speaker’s speeches; and another website are selected for data extraction.
The websites where the speeches were extracted are http://asiwajubolatinubu.com; and http://pmnewsnigeria.com because these listed sources have wide and trusted data on the speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as an opposition leader. These speeches include: “Sacrificing the Party to Save Nigeria”; “The Role of Opposition in Meeting Nigeria’s Challenges”; “Leadership, National Development and the People”; and “Nigeria Needs Fixing”.
The analytical method employed in the study is mainly descriptive and interpretive. Purposive sampling method is used to obtain the data as this further enhanced the usefulness of the extracted data. The data collected revolved around the locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts of the extracted speeches: contextual clues such as pronominal reference, deixis, figurative expressions, repetitions; and pragmatic clues such as the exploitation of the authorial knowledge of the speaker, audience, society, medium, situation, and context surrounding the production of these discourses. Also, we used the search function tool in Microsoft Word to search for some lexemes in the speeches in order to get accurate results during our analysis.
1.7.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The theoretical framework is the linguistic patterns embedded in grammatical and linguistic theories that are used to analyse the data in this study. In this study, critical discourse analysis is foregrounded as the primary means of analysis. The choice of this linguistic tool was based on the view of Wodak (2001:11) that “CDA takes an interest in the ways in which linguistic forms are used in various expressions and manipulation of power”.
Therefore, concentration is paid to the speaker’s resort to composition and strategies that are observable in political discourses and also his handling of central issues; and then we explore the linguistic signposts and rhetorical markers that are dexterously used to enforce the persuasiveness of the speeches. Systemic Functional Grammar is also used to carry out a critical assessment of the texts in order to examine the opposition nuances in those speeches. This is because CDA does not have a single.
What is known today as CDA is best viewed as a shared perspective encompassing a range of approaches rather than just one approach. CDA is not a specific direction of research; hence it does not have a unitary theoretical framework. Given the common perspective and the general aims of CDA, we may also find overall conceptual and theoretical frameworks that are closely related (Sheyholislami, 2001), (van Dijk, 1998a) & (Fairclough, 1995).
1.8 EXPECTED CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE
As expected of every scholarly research to contribute to the reservoir of knowledge of the topic researched, this study is not an exception. This research is to emphasize that the scope of critical discourse analysis, most especially, Political Discourse Analysis as a sub-genre can be extended to analyse speeches of leaders of opposition political parties in Nigeria.
What has been carried out on the political discourses of leaders of opposition parties in Nigeria has been mere commentary. Thus, this study brings a new dimension to the study of speeches of leaders of opposition parties in Nigeria and in in the world at large. This study contributes by bringing linguistic, empirical, quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches into the studies of political speeches of leaders of opposition parties.
Voice of the Opposition a Critical Discourse Analysis of Four Selected Speeches of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
To avoid vagueness in the understanding of lexemes used in the study and to maintain a clear and perfect comprehension of this study, we hereby define some terms according to the contextual framework within which they are used. This is also to avoid ambiguity.
- Tinubu: refers to the erstwhile executive governor of Lagos State and a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition party in Nigeria.
- Voice: refers to the person that is expressing the important values, identity, qualities, opinions and ideologies of a group or organisation.
- Political parties: refers to the organisations of people in Nigeria with particular political stance and which compete in elections at the local, state and federal levels.
- The Opposition: refers to the second largest party, All Progressive Congress (APC), which is not the ruling party in Nigeria.
- The ruling party: refers to the largest political party in Nigeria, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
- Ideology: refers to the set of beliefs or principles that guide the members of a group or an organisation, and which also serves as the bedrock of a political party.
- Political speeches: refers to the expression of political languages that carries a party’s ideology, identity, and beliefs.
- Rhetoric: refers to the appropriate use of language to sway one’s audience.
- Frame: refers to the worldview of a speaker or a writer.
