ABSTRACT
This study is based on the speeches of the Nigerian Political Elite. A linguistic-stylistic analysis of their speeches is tackled in-depth.
A total of fourteen speeches are analysed through the use of the clause structure (SPCA), that is, Subject, Predicate, Complement and Adjunct, which served as the obligatory elements of the analysis.
Some of the speeches analysed showcase the deceptive nature of some of these politicians through their use of euphemism, metaphorical and philosophical statements to deceive, cajole and confuse the electorates.
This study intends to inspire future researchers to dig deeply into the intrigues, antics, antecedents and actions of the Nigerian Political Elite.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The famous philosopher and one of the greatest thinkers in history, Aristotle opines that: “All humans are political animal no one can do without it and everyone is always affected by policies.”
This Western philosopher held this view about man being a political animal because he (man) is one animal that tries to order his social arrangement according to his sense of understanding and rational argument about the justice of those arrangements.
Virtually all Western philosophers that came after Aristotle’s works; Alexander the Great, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, Albertus, Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Duus Scotus, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Martha Nussbawn and host of others also famously stated that man is by “nature” a political animal.
Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting that human beings tend to have naturally.