RHETORICAL ARGUMENTATION AND SELF-REPRESENTATION IN OLUSEGUN OBASANJO’S NON-FICTIONAL TEXTS

Abstract

Olusegun Obasanjo‘s non-fictional texts explicate a representation of Nigerian socio-political history and have stirred up serious national political arguments. Extant studies on Obasanjo‘s self-constructs have mostly concentrated on his speeches, with little attention paid to his nonfictional texts and examined lexicalisation, hedges, and (de)responsibilisation strategies. This study was, therefore, designed to examine Olusegun Obasanjo‘s rhetorical argumentation, selfrepresentational strategies and self-representation constructs in his non-fictional texts in order to establish his construction of discourse-mediated reality through arguments. Ruth Wodak‘s Discourse Historical Approach, complemented by Paul van den Hoven‘s Rhetorical Discourse Analysis and Stephen Toulmin‘s Model of Argument, was used as the framework. The descriptive design was adopted. Olusegun Obasanjo‘s My Command (MC), Not My Will (NMW) and My Watch (MW) were purposively selected because of the texts‘ influence in Nigeria‘s historical and political debates. Data were subjected to discourse analysis. Fifteen rhetorical argumentation techniques, three self-representation strategies, and four selfrepresentation constructs were used in the texts. The techniques are ethotic appeal, counterpoint, self-mentions, pseudo-logical fallacy, pathetic argument, us-them dichotomy, biblical eisegesis exemplification, ad-hominiem, analogies, cause and effect, moral, perceptive, rational and quasi-logical argumentations. The strategies are predication, referential and perspectivisation. These were captured in four self-representational constructs: Obasanjo as a nationalist, Nigeria‘s predestined watchman, a revered Owu man and a gallant Nigerian soldier-politician. Obasanjo as a nationalist utilised perspectivisation, referential, and predication strategies phrased in the us-them dichotomy to justify self as the main actor on the stage, selfless leader, and the reformer of a modern Nigeria and others as bigots, cynics, corrupt and self-centred politicians. Obasanjo as Nigeria‘s predestined watchman was premised on biblical eisegesis and consciously controlled mimesis through the metaphoric construction of self as a mover and God-chosen. Obasanjo utilised syntactically-subordinated discourse units and deictic devices ‗I‘, with its variants ‗my‘ or ‗me‘, to show commitment, shouldering of national responsibility, and assertion of personal authority and power. His representation of self as a revered Owu man was premised on historical facts (1821 Owu Massacre) and presumptions (Ifo Market Day) phrased in an elliptic evocation (Pre-colonial Nigeria) and generalised beliefs (Owu ancestral civility). Obasanjo used pseudo-logical fallacies, ethos, and counterpoint as argumentation strategies for clarifying and modifying positions. The discursive construction of Obasanjo as a gallant Nigerian soldier-politician utilised the linguistic process of us-them narration that was grounded on moral, perceptive, rational, and quasi-logical argumentation. These were manifested by metaphoric descriptions, ethos, analogies, cause and effect, definition, and exemplifications in presenting the credibility of the discourse world to establish, affirm and vindicate self. While MC establishes Obasanjo‘s quest for nationalism, NMW focuses on the description of self as Nigeria‘s reformer, and MW updates and reaffirms his divine commitment as Nigeria‘s watchman. Obasanjo‘s rhetorical argumentations were built on culture-implicit beliefs, and formed a constitutive part of his self-representation strategies and constructs and these accounted for the discrepancies between the mediated discourse world and the constructed reality in the texts.