International Journal of Language and Literary Studies 182 Samuel Alaba AKINWOTU Department of English Studies, Adekunle Ajasin University, P.M.B. 001,Akungba-Akoko, Nigeria samuelakinwotu@gmail.com samuel.akinwotu@aaua.edu.ng DOI: http://doi.org/ 10.36892/ijlls.v3i4.688 1. INTRODUCTION Speech making is an essential aspect of politics which involves the organisation and management of society. Politics and language are inextricably bound because political communication involves the use of language and language is the means by which power and control are exercised in politics. Language is the medium by which politicians establish and maintain social relationships; a means by which they express their feelings, and sell their ideas, policies and programmes to the larger society. As in communication, speech making involves a speaker in seeking either to inform a hearer of something or to enjoin him/her to act in a particular way. Writing about communication, Bogdanor (1987: p.443) opines that communication involves “the flow of messages and information that gives structure and meaning to the political processes.” As an art, speech making has to do with persuasive use of language. Even though public speaking is not only about persuasion, it is obviously an important aspect of it; hence directly related to rhetoric. In the ancient Greek society, premium is placed on speech making as an essential aspect of public political participation and as a means by which the extent of the political influence of Abstract Speech making in politics is an essential tool used to manage relationships between politicians and the electorate. The success of a speech depends on the content and the discourse and linguistic strategies employed to achieve speakers’ communicative goals. Political speeches have been widely studied, but extant studies have given tangential attention to the management of rapport in speeches of political office holders delivered in crisis situation in Nigeria. Two speeches delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (GBS) on the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, downloaded from www.guardian.ng and www.premiumtimesng.com respectively, were purposively selected and analysed using Rapport Management theory. This is with the view to accounting for the linguistic elements and discourse strategies and their functions in maintaining harmonious relationship in selected texts. Linguistic elements such as the inclusive “we”, the institutional “I”, collective/possessive “us” “our” “your” and descriptive adjectives and strategies such as claiming common ground, expressing solidarity, showing empathy were employed to manage rapport and achieve communicative goals by PMB and GBS. While GBS tactically avoids utterances that are rapport threatening, some utterances of PMB have the tendency to impair rapport. He however mitigates them through hedging, personalisation, institutionalisation and testimonial argument. Received: 07/11/2021 Accepted: 30/11/2021 Keywords: President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, #EndSARS, Public speaking, Rapport Management. International Journal of Language and Literary Studies Volume 3, Issue 4, 2021 Homepage : http://ijlls.org/index.php/ijlls Rapport Management in President Buhari and Governor Sanwo-Olu’s Speeches on #EndSARS Protest in Nigeria