British Journal of English Linguistics Vol.4, No.4, pp.12-23, July 2016 ___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org) 12 ISSN 2055-6063(Print), ISSN 2055-6071(Online) POLITICAL MANIPULATION IN NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL DISCOURSES Ngozi U. Emeka-Nwobia Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki - Nigeria ABSTRACT: This paper examines excerpts of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan’s political discourses to determine how language is utilized as instrument for manipulating the electorates by politicians. Working within the tenet of Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, the paper seeks to explore the workings of power in the Nigerian presidential discourse and to unravel the concealed meaning in the utterances under study. Findings reveal that the two presidents grossly utilized manipulative languages in marketing their agenda, ideology and programme to their audience. These were achieved in their portrayal of self as humble servants, political redeemers, alignment with the suffering of the vast majority of the people and statement of government reconciliation. While Obasanjo took time to narrate his walking through the valley episode, Jonathan painted his picture of humble childhood experience, and concluding that he is one of the suffering majority. These are manipulative strategies geared towards entreating and appealing to ideological sense, controlling the people’s thought and perception, and manipulate the unsuspected members of the public towards accepting their candidacy. KEYWORDS: Language and Power, Political Discourse, Manipulation, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) INTRODUCTION Language has remained one of the dominant and pervasive problems in Africa in general and Nigeria in particle. Language is one of the indispensable resources of man, necessary for his day to day transaction and activities. The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all, genetically setting us apart from the rest of life. Language is, like nest building or hive making, the universal and biologically specific activity of human beings. We engage in it communally, compulsively, and automatically. We cannot be human without it; if we were to be separated from it our minds would die assuredly as bees lost from the hive. Language makes us human; it is inseparable from the users (society). It does not exist in vacuum but lives in the lips of the speakers (language is used to meet one of the basic daily needs of the speakers. Language plays varied functions ranging from phatic communion, assertives, declaratives, commissive and referential functions. Language also provides means of accessing our thoughts. This can be done by text (written) or talk (verbal or oral channel). Eyisi (2000) notes we use language to express love, hatred, anger, happiness, praise, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, to comment on the political, social, educational or economic situations in the country; to confirm or express religious beliefs, to comment on the weather and even to fill a vacuum when there is nothing else to do especially in the exchange of pleasantries. Human beings, therefore, are naturally endowed with the tendency to always talk, to use words, to employ language for a mutual social relationship with their fellow individuals and for the achievement of their daily objectives for their well-being and for the well-being of their community.