Ideology and Power Relations in Abubakar Shekau’s Speech Texts

Abstract

This paper explores the phenomenon of power that exists in Abubakar Shekau’s speech text. Drawing from Halliday’s Systemic functional grammar and Norman Fairclough’s perspective on language and ideology Shekau’s speech text was analyzed. The analysis is done using Information structure model of Theme and Rheme to explicate the ideologies embedded in the texts.Results showed that Shekau’s ideologies can be grouped into two namely divinity ideologies and political ideologies .The power-relations are three dimensional –that between Shekau and his God, Shekau and his followers and Shekau and the Nigerian government. The ideologies and power-relations are embedded in shekau’s use of personal pronouns.