Abstract: The paper analyses subjective evaluations of actors and processes surrounding the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria in the context of political discourse. It examines President Muhammadu Buhari’s subjective presence in texts as he adopts stances towards the pandemic and the Nigerian people with whom he communicates. Three speeches downloaded from the president’s official Facebook page were purposively sampled and analysed using Martin & White’s (2015) Appraisal Theory. The speeches were found to be characterised by seven evaluation resources, namely, affect expression of solidarity, affect expression of concern over effects of pandemic, affect expression of gratitude, judgement evaluation of the efforts at curbing COVID-19, appreciation evaluation of facilities available to curtail COVID-19, appreciation evaluation of processes designed to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, and appreciation evaluation of collaborative response to COVID-19. The preponderance of judgement value of the data implies that the president did more of assessing behaviours of actors involved in the process of managing, curbing or mitigating the effects of the pandemic than assessing the processes themselves. In conclusion, the paper argues that the primary goal of political speeches, especially in the context of a crisis situation, is to assert the relevance of political actors and express positive perception of power brokers.
Keywords: evaluation, stance, coronavirus, appraisal theory, COVID-19, speeches.
Title: Stance Evaluation and Politics of Language: An Appraisal Analysis of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Speeches on Covid-19 Pandemic
Author: Dr. Abiodun Jombadi
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
Vol. 10, Issue 2, April 2022 - June 2022
Page No: 570-578
Research Publish Journals
Website: www.researchpublish.com
Published Date: 28-June-2022
