RHETORIC AND IDEOLOGY

Abstract

This paper examines the text of Bishop David Oyedepo’s keynote address at the 26th conference of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU) held at Covenant University, Canaan Land, Ota, Nigeria in June 2011. Previous studies on speeches in Nigeria have focused mainly on those made by politicians, statesmen, and military rulers. Some have also examined the stylistic, pragmatic and discourse features of the sermons of some Nigerian Pentecostal pastors. No speech analyst has studied the speech of a university chancellor of a Pentecostal Christian University in a purely social/academic setting. This paper is a study of the rhetorical and ideological nuances underlying the speech of a Pentecostal Christian University Chancellor delivered in a purely social/academic context. The study employed a qualitative approach in the analysis of the text to tease out the meaning potential of the rhetorical strategies deployed in the speech and the ideology that motivated their use. Methods of and insights from discourse analysis, the systemic orientation, and the theory of rhetoric were employed to unearth the underlying ideology and persuasive strategies used in the address. The significance of the study lies in its exploration of the diverse uses of language in constructing and motivating an ideological order that presents a positive attitude to life’s challenges in a third world economy like Nigeria.