JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE STUDIES AND ARTS

Inaugural addresses are strategic political discourses that function beyond ceremonial purposes; they serve as tools for legitimizing authority, mobilizing citizens, and articulating governance priorities. This study examines the pragmatic use of speech acts in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s First Inaugural Address delivered on May 29, 2023, at Eagle Square, Abuja. Anchored in Speech Act Theory as developed by Austin (1962) and Searle (1969), the study employs a qualitative descriptive design to identify, classify, and interpret the illocutionary forces and perlocutionary effects of speech acts in the address. The findings reveal that Tinubu’s speech contains a strategic blend of assertives (to affirm national unity and resilience), directives (to urge collective action), commissives (to pledge reforms and governance commitments), expressives (to convey gratitude and solidarity), and declaratives (to assert Nigeria’s democratic permanence). The analysis demonstrates that the speech acts are not merely rhetorical but performative, shaping audience perception and reinforcing political legitimacy. This study concludes that pragmatic strategies in Nigerian political discourse, as exemplified in Tinubu’s inaugural speech, are vital in promoting cohesion, inspiring confidence, and projecting democratic ideals

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