ELABORACION DE LA MATRIZ DE RIESGOS

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

analysis of disparity in presidential rhetorics on national development objectives and achievements in their Inaugural and Handover speeches from 1999 to 2015. In the same vein, the Weighted Average Development Analysis Model (WADAM) was specifically designed by the researcher and employed in the analysis of the historical (outcome) data generated for this study.

The Agenda Setting Theory as well as Correspondence and Coherence Theories of Truth provided the framework for the discourse in this study. These theories have tended to form a basis for most of the general discourses on presidential speeches. Their relevance to the study is illustrated in the insightful explanations of development Agenda Setting function of Nigerian President and the truthfulness of development narratives in presidential speeches from 1999 to 2015. The materials reviewed centered around the issue of political rhetorics (speeches) as an aspect of political communication and national development as a function of leaders in developing nations like Nigeria.

The finding from the study demonstrated that national development is a dominant content of presidential rhetorics in Nigeria as majority (57.3% that is 418) of the 730 sentences in both the inaugural and handover speeches studied were national development related. Expectedly, the study equally reported that national development objectives/promises theme dominated the inaugural speeches, while national development achievement/claims theme dominated the presidential handover speeches. This corroborates the existing literature that while presidential inaugural speech often outlines leaders’ objectives and plans for their people and the country; the handover speech centres on the recall of their achievements while in office (Van Dijk, 1993;

Humphrey, 2014; Adjei, & Ewusi-Mensah, 2016). This finding equally suggests a strong awareness of the national development needs among Nigerian Presidents between 1999 and 2015 and corroborates Alo’s (2012) assertion that African political leaders generally acknowledged the socio-economic problems of Africa and the need for change in their rhetorics.

Finding also shows that there were 17 national development objectives/promises subthemes in the inaugural speeches which include: political, agricultural, educational, economic, infrastructural, health, and social developments; corruption control; public confidence in governance; security of lives and properties; development of Niger Delta/Petroleum sector;

promotion of good foreign policies/international relations; women/youth empowerment;

promotion of national unity and values; effective resource management; and other general issues.

There were also 18 national development claims in the two handover speeches studied which include: political, economic, infrastructural, agricultural, health, human, educational, and sports developments; promotion of national values and unity; nation building; corruption control;

security of lives and properties; women/youth empowerment; development of Niger Delta/petroleum; promotion of foreign policies/international relations; public confidence in governance; and general development issues.

However, the study reported that development achievements/praise theme which ordinarily ought to be an exclusive content of handover speeches was also found in the inaugural speeches this could be attributed to the prevailing political happening surrounding the selected speeches.

For instance, development achievement/praise theme found its way into President Obasanjo’s 1999 inaugural speech by way of praising the immediate past Military President Abdulsalami Abubakar for his contribution to national development; the said theme again appeared in President Obasanjo’s 2003 inaugural speech as a recount of his development achievements during his first tenure since there was no other former handover speech in that year. Similarly, development achievement theme appeared in President Yar’Adua’s 2007 and President Jonathan’s 2010 inaugural speeches in the form of praising the immediate past administrations for their contributions to national development. In 2011, the theme again appeared in President Jonathan’s inaugural speech as a recount of his development achievements from 2010 to 2011 since there was no other official handover speech as he handed over power to himself after winning the 2011 presidential election.

Finding revealed low level of coherence between the development objectives and achievements themes raised in Nigerian Presidential inaugural and handover speeches from 1999 to 2015. This is because the Simple Percentage Difference (SPD) in the number of sentences used for the expression of development objectives and achievements and the average disparity rate (ADR) in the development objectives and achievements themes raised by all the Presidents within the period under study were 83.4% and 61.3% respectively which were far above the 50%

benchmark. This means that the Presidents neither strictly stayed on the national development agenda they set for their administrations while taking oath of offices nor did they limit their claims to only those areas they would have affected positively while in office. This however negates the basic tenet of Coherence Theory of Truth which suggests that for the President to be judged as truthful, he must maintain some level of consistency in his rhetorics (Schmitt, 2004).

This no doubt has negative implication on the reliability of political rhetorics in the country.

Again, the study found that even though Nigerian past President have always put in necessary development outputs like policies and programmes as well as legislations to drive their development promises; there was low level of correspondence between Nigerian presidential rhetorics on national development and the available actual or independent development reality as advocated by the Correspondence Theory of Truth. This means no Nigerian past Presidents fulfilled his national development promises as contained in their inaugural speeches from 1999 to 2015 and neither were they truthful in their claims to have contributed to national development as documented in their handover speeches within the period under study.

The overall findings from the study demonstrate great knowledge of the development deficit of the country among Nigerian leaders but usually matched with low political will and personal commitment to turn things around.