“Coronavirus is Enemy, Formidable and Opportunistic”: Pragmatic Acts in Selected Covid-19 Political Speeches in Nigeria

Abstract Political speeches are fundamental instruments used by political officeholders to address pressing social and political issues. Existing works on Nigerian political speeches regarding COVID-19 have primarily focused on the speeches of former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, with limited attention paid to the COVID-19 speeches of other notable Nigerian politicians. This study, therefore, examines pragmatic acts of persuasion in selected COVID-19 political speeches of Governor Babatunde Sanwo-Olu (GBS), Dr Osagie Ehanire (DOE) and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (PYO) on COVID-19 precautionary measures. The qualitative analysis of the data was supported by the theoretical principles of Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Acts. Data were purposively selected because of their significance to the study’s aim and objectives. While PYO’s speech was retrieved from his website on https://www.yemiosinbajo.ng , GBS’s speech was accessed on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development (MPPUD), Lagos State. DOE’s speech was retrieved from YouTube and was later transcribed for ease of analysis. Data were subjected to pragmatic analysis. Seven practs were identified in the COVID-19 speeches: assuring, advising, pleading, reporting, informing, appreciating and stating. These practs were used to strengthen listeners’ conviction, emphasise proactiveness, show exigency, encourage alertness, create awareness, sustain moral values, and spell out the reality of COVID-19, respectively. The pragmatic resources of speech act, inference (INF), reference (REF), relevance (REL), metaphor (M), shared situation knowledge (SSK) and shared cultural knowledge (SCK) were utilised by the political actors to solicit compliance with COVID-19 precautionary measures by Nigerian citizens.