“Nigeria Shall Exist”: Legitimation Strategies in President Bola Tinubu’s Inaugural Speech

Abstract

Political systems aim to establish belief in their legitimacy and, as a core principle, devise diverse strategies to validate people’s acceptance. Extant works on inaugural speeches have identified discourse strategies, ideologies, and grammatical resources, leaving a gap in legitimation strategies. This study adopts van Leeuwen’s (207: 2008) framework of legitimation to analyse President Bola Tinubu's 2023 Inaugural Speech, focusing on how he constructs legitimacy and democratic validation. Through a qualitative content analysis, the study identifies authorisation, moralisation, and rationalisation as legitimation strategies deployed to reinforce acceptability. Personal and collective pronouns, metaphors, and imagery are used to assert authority. Through the use of imperatives, declaratives, and references, Tinubu aligns his presidency with Nigeria's shared democratic principles. This study contends that inaugural speeches serve as strategic tools for consolidating leadership authority and shaping public perception. This study concludes that linguistic choices in inaugural speeches can be deployed as critical instruments to reinforce leadership acceptance.