Constructing National Identity Through Language in Nigerian Presidential Inaugural Addresses Since 1999

Presidential inaugural addresses are a primary site for the official discursive construction of national identity in democratic polities, and in Nigeria's diverse multilingual and multi-ethnic society, the linguistic strategies through which presidents articulate a unified national narrative are both politically consequential and analytically revealing. This study examines the construction of national identity through language in Nigerian presidential inaugural addresses delivered between 1999 and 2023, covering six inaugural speeches by four presidents. A discourse-historical approach combining rhetorical analysis, metaphor analysis, and pronoun use analysis was applied to the full text of each address. National identity construction strategies identified across the corpus include the deployment of unifying historical narrative that recasts ethnic and regional diversity as national strength, the use of inclusive we pronouns that systematically blur distinctions between the president and the citizenry, spatial metaphors of national wholeness and boundary, and temporal metaphors of new beginning that rhetorically sever present from problematic past governance. Diachronic comparison across the six addresses reveals shifting emphases in national identity construction corresponding to different political contexts: post-military transition addresses emphasize democratic rebirth, while re-election addresses emphasize continuity and development achievement. Comparative analysis with published studies of inaugural discourse in South Africa and Ghana illuminates both common African postcolonial discursive patterns and specifically Nigerian rhetorical strategies. The study contributes to political discourse analysis and the sociolinguistics of nationalism. Keywords: national identity, inaugural addresses, presidential discourse, Nigeria, discourse-historical approach.