A critical study of war frames against corruption in the first-term inaugural speeches of Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari

Abstract

This study investigates how former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari deployed war narratives in their first-term inaugural speeches to frame the fight against corruption in Nigeria. Both Obasanjo and Buhari, at different times, served as military heads of state and as democratically elected presidents. Thus, the manner in which the two leaders deployed conflict lexicon in framing corruption attracts linguistic investigation. Excerpts from the speeches that express the speakers' stances on corruption were purposively selected for analysis using van Dijk's critical discourse analysis (CDA) model. The findings reveal that the speakers utilised various linguistic and ideological strategies to create mental shortcuts for the audience, legitimise the fight against corruption and the deployment of relevant state apparatuses, and implement the fight with negotiated public consent. Through adversarial representations, the speakers frame corrupt public officials as enemies of the state, while inclusive language and mental schema give the masses voluntary ownership of the war. The underlying proposition is that, if the enemy is not defeated immediately, corruption will spread its cancerous tentacles and overwhelm the nation.