Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity in Political Discourse: An Analysis of President Tinubu’s Acceptance Speech

Abstract

The study investigates intertextuality and interdiscursivity in political discourse using President Tinubu’s acceptance speech. In the wake of the presidential campaigns in Nigeria, Nigerians raised uproar about the delivery of president Tinubu’s speeches, on both the print and social media. He was accused of not being coherent and exhibiting signs of slurred speech. The president’s state of mind was even questioned. His sentences were said to be bereft of cohesiveness and coherence, so this study is carried out to analyse the first speech made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for intertextuality and interdiscursivity, as elements of cohesion and coherence, or the lack thereof. The president’s acceptance speech after he was declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election forms the data for the study. Data were collected from the verified online page of Channels Tv, a leading and award winning TV station in Nigeria, and analysed using Bakhtin’s theory of Dialogism. Findings reveal that the president’s acceptance speech is rich in intertextuality and interdiscursivity. Elements of intertextuality manifest in the speech are citation, references and presupposition. Different discourses also interact with each other in the acceptance speech. The study concludes that the president’s acceptance speech is adjudged intertextual and interdiscursive, because it draws on a range of existing texts and discourses. The speech employs intertextuality and interdiscursivity as discursive strategies for inclusivity at a time when the people were quite divided as a result of political affiliations and the result of the election. The president also seizes the opportunity to respond to previous and existing texts on the state of the nation.