Abstract
This study investigates ideological underpinnings
in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s State of Emergency Declaration on Rivers State.
It examines how linguistic choices in the speech are used to construct
authority, urgency, and ideological positioning. Using Systemic Functional
Linguistics (SFL) as the primary theoretical framework and incorporating
insights from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study analyzes mood,
modality, and tone to uncover the ideological stance embedded in the
declaration. A qualitative approach was adopted, with the speech broken down
into clauses and categorized based on mood type (declarative, imperative,
interrogative), modality (low, medium, high certainty), and tone (assertive,
neutral, uncertain, supported by frequency counts). Findings reveal a dominance
of declarative mood (98%), high-certainty modality (57.1%), and assertive tone
(92%), reinforcing the President’s authoritative stance and ideological
framing. The integration of CDA further highlights how linguistic choices are
used to legitimize executive power, frame the crisis, and establish dominance
over the political narrative. The study contributes to theory, by linking SFL
and CDA in political discourse analysis, to practice by informing political
speechwriting, and to policy by highlighting the role of language in crisis
management. It underscores how leaders use linguistic strategies to assert
control and justify interventions, offering a model for analyzing governance
rhetoric.in crisis situations.
Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Mood and Modality, Political Discourse, Systemic Functional Linguistics, State of Emergency
DOI: 10.36349/alqajolls.2026.v01i02.002
author/Muhammad, Babangida Muhammad & Abubakar Umar Mahmud
journal/AL-QALAM JLLS 1(2) | June 2026
