Face Threatening Acts and Politeness in Selected Speeches of Governor El-Rufai on Covid-19

ABSTRACT
In every communicative engagement, people perform certain communicative acts in a bid to achieve their goals in interaction. Political leaders have over time waded into health crises discourses in an attempt to provide directions on best practices in times of such distress. This paper studies face-threatening acts and politeness strategies employed in selected speeches of Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on the COVID-19 pandemic and adherence to safety rules. Out of the two (2) speeches selected by purposive sampling, five (5) excerpts each were used to analyse face-threatening acts and the use of politeness strategies, respectively, adopting face theory of Brown and Levinson as a theoretical framework. For its methodology, the work adopts a qualitative approach and subjects the data to a content analysis to investigate the FTAs and PPs inherent in the speeches. The study finds that political speeches during such pandemics are often laced with subtle face-threatening acts even when they may appear unintended or unplanned. Furthermore, the paper submits that although politeness strategies were employed to a large extent, they did not rule out the FTAs meted out on the listeners. It concludes that politicians would often engage the populace in situations such as health pandemics, but it is recommended that in doing so, they should employ more mitigatory strategies and positive politeness strategies to minimize the effects of face-threatening acts in order to uphold the positive face of their interlocutors and promote self-esteem.