Rhetorical Strategies in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Campaign Speech at Chatham House, London: a Discourse Analytical Study
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Rhetoric is the art of using language to convince and influence people. This study investigates the rhetorical templates and canons employed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his campaign speech at Chatham House, London, to convey the power of linguistic and extra-linguistic choices in a political context. Adopting a qualitative approach, the study analyses rhetorical features such as ethos, pathos, logos, invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery in the selected campaign speech. The data for the study were sourced from the internet, specifically from the website www.legit.ng, using a purposive sampling technique to select the campaign speech delivered at Chatham House, London — the venue widely associated with the beginnings of Nigeria’s path to independence. The study adopts Jennifer Andrus’s (2021) Rhetorical Discourse Analysis as its theoretical framework. Thirty excerpts were purposively selected from the campaign speech and analysed. Findings show that Institutional Practices and Logos are the most dominant persuasive elements, accounting for 30.7%, followed by Ethos and Inequality at 30%, and News Media as rhetorical pathos at 15%. The remainder of the distribution comprises Invention (10.3%), Arrangement (5%), Ethics and Style (4%), Intertextuality, Recontextualization and Memory (3%), while Delivery accounts for the remaining 2%. The result shows that Delivery is the least engaged element in the speech. Overall, the study submits that politicians rely heavily on purposive and persuasive language to foster their ideologies among the electorate.
Institution: Rufus Giwa Polytechnic
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7203786037