Integrity Journal of Arts and Humanities

This study examines the crucial role of language in legitimising emergency rule within a democratic system. The study is anchored on Van Leeuwen’s Legitimation Strategy, which includes authorisation, moral evaluation, rationalisation, and mythopoiesis. These strategies are employed to analyse the Rivers State emergency rule speech of President Bola Tinubu. Data were collected from the Presidential Villa State House Website, http://statehouse.gov.ng. The excerpts were randomly selected in line with the features of the legitimation strategies. The study adopted a qualitative research design. Data were selected through purposive sampling. Findings revealed that the exercise of political power is not only backed by law and policies but also by a careful choice of linguistic items. The study therefore concludes that language is used by political elites to either construct or deconstruct authority. Most significantly, the study encourages readers to pay particular attention to the word choice of political figures and make objective decisions, bearing in mind that the language of politics deliberately works to legitimise the actions of political elites. Above all, the study contributes to discourse studies by expounding how legitimation strategies function in the Nigerian political space.