DISCURSIVE STRATEGIES OF IDEOLOGICAL REPRESENTATIONS IN SELECTED SPEECHES OF SIR ABUBAKAR TAFAWA BALEWA OF NIGERIA

To gain political power, political actors often times adopt linguistic and rhetorical strategies that help them to communicate effectively with their intended audience. This has reinvigorated the study of language of politics as an academic practice. This study carries out a critical discourse analysis of selected speeches of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to examine the role of language in establishing ideology and therefore sustaining power as well as ideological discursive structures in political speeches. The study discretely investigates linguistics expressions which carry ideological tenets in speeches under review. The study used qualitative research method and textual analysis as its design. Purposive sampling approach was used to select five speeches of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and the analysis was structured thematically. The study employed Fairclough's model of CDA (1989) which presents discourse as a social practice because it focuses on the reality of text and discourses and its suitability for the study. The study unearth how ideologies are being handled through certain discursive structures by discussing metaphor, disclaimer, pronouns, rhetorical questions, strong moral obligation, intertextuality and evidentiality. Furthermore, the study revealed how discursive structures produce and uphold power and its asymmetry between Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and his audience. The research summarises that politics as a game, uses language for discursive enterprise and concludes that Balewa's speeches were designed to maintain, and sustain power and power relations across a range of different groups.