A Pragmatic Analysis of President Nnamdi Azikiwe’s Speech: a response to the foremost Military Seizure of Power in Nigeria – January, 1966

• Main Authors: Emmanuel Tobi Adegoriolu, E-mail: [e-mail], Gilbert Thapelo Mokgadi, E-mail: [e-mail], Beatrice Abisola Akinsiku, E-mail: [e-mail], Folashade Beatrice Otokunrin, E-mail: [e-mail], Tshepang Jacob Moloi, E-mail: [e-mail]
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Educational and Social Sciences Association (IESSA) 2021-09-01
• Series: Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities
• Subjects: pragmatics analysis; contemporaries; young turks; revolution; mutinous; violent; language
• Online Access: http://www.jssshonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/JSSSH_Vol.7_No.3_2021_242-252_Sr.-No.-5.pdf

This study is a pragmatic analysis of President Nnamdi Azikiwe’s speech responding to the foremost Military Seizure of Power in Nigeria – January, 1966. Post the Nigerian colonialism in 1966 and the attainment of independence, a military coup emerged which caused the reaction of the interim leader President Nnamdi Azikiwe. The foremost military seizure of power happened when the then Nigerian President was out of the country on an official assignment. Immediately he heard of the coup plot by the military against him, he released a speech against this incident. Speech presentation is a feature of the communicative process; hence it is encoded with meanings. For instance, in discourse, meanings are decrypted and certain acts elicited. Therefore, using qualitative methodology espoused by diagnostic analytical technique; the paper analyses the pragmatic effects using the speech acts and functional models as the conceptual framework. In concise, there were occurrences of functional and structural patterns are identified as well as several illocutionary acts.