“We Rose from the Ashes of Despair”: A Pragma-Stylistic Analysis of Metaphor in President Tinubu’s 2024-2025 Democracy Day Speeches
https://doi.org/10.24833/2687-0126-2026-8-2-12-29
Abstract
In post-authoritarian democracies, commemorative speeches serve as crucial sites for reinforcing national cohesion and legitimising state power, yet they remain largely understudied in political discourse analysis. Addressing this gap, this article investigates the metaphorical construction of political meaning in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2024 and 2025 Democracy Day speeches, framing presidential rhetoric as a highly institutionalised form of professional discourse. The aim is to examine how metaphor functions as a cognitive, communicative, and stylistic resource in presidential rhetoric. Drawing on an integrated pragma-stylistic framework combining Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), Speech Act Theory (SAT), and Stylistic Theory, the study uncovers how metaphors frame national history and construct leadership legitimacy. The corpus, totaling 4,875 words, was analysed using the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP). The analysis identified 22 active metaphors (14 from 2024; 8 from 2025) grouped into six thematic domains: rebirth and struggle, war and resistance, living democracy, light and vision, economic restoration, and sacred destiny. Findings reveal that these metaphors operate as pragmatic tools for reframing political struggle and mobilising citizen responsibility. Specifically, rebirth and struggle metaphors construct national resilience. Journey and light imagery provide forward-looking frames that guide public expectations. Economic metaphors simplify complex reforms by framing hardship as structural renewal, and sacred metaphors elevate democratic practice within moral registers resonating with Nigerian socio-cultural values. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that metaphor in commemorative discourse performs vital ideological work, shaping how citizens interpret democratic progress and national identity while executing the organisational objectives of state leadership. By analysing a neglected genre of Nigerian presidential rhetoric, this study expands existing scholarship on African political discourse and highlights the relevance of a triangulated pragma-stylistic approach for understanding metaphor as a layered discursive phenomenon.
About the Author
Reuben Kende
Joseph Ayo Babalola University
Nigeria
Nigeria
Reuben Kende is a PhD candidate at Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji, Nigeria. His research focuses on discourse analysis and pragmatics, specifically the study of language use in context
Ikeji
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Review
For citations:
Kende R. “We Rose from the Ashes of Despair”: A Pragma-Stylistic Analysis of Metaphor in President Tinubu’s 2024-2025 Democracy Day Speeches. Professional Discourse & Communication. 2026;8(2):12-29. https://doi.org/10.24833/2687-0126-2026-8-2-12-29
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