Populism and Political Transformation in Nigeria: A Critical Discourse Analysis of General Muhammadu Buhari’s 2015 Chatham House Campaign Speech

Populism as an ideology is now becoming a new paradigm and strategy in the democratic system of Nigeria for capturing political power and addressing the challenges of democratic transition. The aim of this study is to explore the ideology in the selected campaign speech of General Muhammadu Buhari, using critical discourse analysis which is an approach that seeks to explain and expose the relationship between discourse, ideology and power by analyzing a particular text. The objectives of the study were to analyze and examine the textual and discursive features and effects of the concept in the speech and the political transformation of the country. The study adopted as its theoretical framework Norman Fairclough’s three stages of critical discourse analysis which investigates a text as a discourse, discursive and social practice in terms of description, interpretation and explanation, respectively. General Muhammadu Buhari’s 2015 Chatham House campaign speech was sampled for the study because of its global prominence and significance to the topic of the study. The study used the qualitative method of data analysis to examine the data obtained from an online source. The analysis focuses on vocabulary, transitivity, pronoun, mood, modality and structural organization of the text. The findings of the study show how the presidential candidate used selective vocabulary and transitivity to offer a positive representation of himself, his party, democracy and intention towards the need for the change of leadership; pronouns to interact and claim solidarity with his audience; mood and modality to express possibility and desirability for the change; and contrastive structure to evaluate and appreciate himself, his party and mission with positive representations. At the same time he evaluates and criticizes the ruling party leadership, the military and the situation in the country with negative representations. The study views this usage as evidence of populism in the speech and political system of Nigeria. Therefore, it concludes that in the political system of the country, populism is not just an ideology but a strategy for challenging the ruling party in order to win political power and to ensure democratic transition.