Contextualizing “Change”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the “Change” Slogan in Nigerian Political Discourse (2014 to Present)

Abstract

What does "change" mean in the strands of discourse circulating in Nigerian political discourse? In this study, I deploy the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis, particularly the Discourse Historical Approach (Reisigl and Wodak, 2016), to examine how the "change" slogan is deployed in selected presidential and religious addresses. While Muhammadu Buhari presents himself an agent of "change" in his 2014 Declaration Speech, employing linguistic forms of positive nomination and predication to describe himself and his party as "transparent" and "credible," he criticizes his opponent with negative formations of the same strategies: "unthinking government" and "oppressive." However, faced with the complexity of governing a modern democracy, in a "Change Begins With Me" speech, Buhari exhorts Nigerians to themselves model change before they ask the government to deliver on the promise of "change." Though "change" is often deployed in political discourse, both the ambiguity of the slogan and the contentious nature of political discourse also emerge in related media discourse, where a prominent Nigerian clergyman, Reverend Ejike Mbaka, invokes religious metaphors as discursive re-appropriation of the president's campaign slogan, warning that Buhari risks being blown away by the "wind of change." Thus, I analyze the intertextual recontextualization of the "change" slogan in Nigerian political discourse in order to reveal how political tensions emerge through discursive formation.

Resisting corruption in the Nigerian legislature: A critical discourse analysis of news and opinion articles on legislators’ salaries

“…The legislators' salary scandal has also been viewed as a contradiction of Buhari's 'change' slogan, which he first introduced during his presidential campaign, describing himself and his APC party as 'transparent' and 'credible' (Awotayo, 2018). And since he came to power, the government has identified 'fighting corruption, increasing security, tackling unemployment, diversifying the economy, enhancing climate resilience, and boosting the living standards of Nigerians' as the main policy priorities of his government (The World Bank IBRD-IDA report 2019: 4).…”