A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO'S OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI

Abstract

Language is a tool of expression used by human beings in their day-to-day interactions. It is

also an instrument that is employed by writers to speak truth to those who are at the helm of

affairs. This paper examines the functional linguistic elements employed in Chief Olusegun

Obasanjo's July 15, 2019 letter to President Muhammadu Buhari. The letter is sourced online

and its examination is premised on descriptive method of analysis. For convenience of

identification, the data are tagged as excerpts and numbered serially. The theoretical

framework is Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics. The findings of the study are that

fronting, apposition, long-winding sentences, conditional sentences and relativisation are

syntactically employed. Binomials, loanwords and coinages are the lexico-semantic features;

parenthesis, quotation marks and alphabetism constitute the graphological features. The

paper concludes that linguistic structures are not just mere components of texts but functional

resources that are used in conveying messages and entrenching meanings.