CULTURE, POWER, AND ROYAL NOBILITY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF IGWE ACHEBE’S OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMISSIONER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT, CHIEFTAINCY AND COMMUNITY AFFAIRS IN ANAMBRA STATE
Abstract
Political discourse does not suffer a paucity of research. The political discourse of Presidents, Governors, and Political candidates has been studied over the years for the use and abuse of power and ideology. However, little research (Ononiwu& Onuigbo 2021, Mlambo 2022) has been carried out over the years to analyze the political discourse of traditional rulers, especially those from the southeast region of Nigeria, bordering on use and abuse of power. Therefore, the present study was conducted to fill the obvious knowledge gap. The present study was a qualitative research. The method of data collection employed in the research is the non-participant observation method. Six extracts that formed the data for the study were gathered from the open letter of Igwe Alfred Achebe, Obi of Onitsha, to Governor Soludo’s Commissioner, Hon. Tony Nwabunwanne, which went viral on social media. Textual analysis was employed to analyze data using Fairclough’s approach to Critical Discourse Analysis. Findings revealed that the traditional ruler, Igwe Achebe, in his open letter, challenged and resisted power abuse by the commissioner for local government, chieftaincy and community affairs in Anambra State, Hon. Tony Nwabunwanne using certain pronouns that depicted alliances and oppositions and in group and out group markers. He exposes dominance, hegemony, and power play between the state government and the traditional rulers' council that resulted in the suspension of a traditional ruler in the state. The open letter also questions the power relations between the macrostructure of the state government and the microstructure of the traditional rulers in the state. The study concludes that the open letter questions power, hegemony and dominance in macro and microstructures of governance between two groups, and how this power play and interplay are reproduced on social and print media.
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